South Africa’s biggest landlord dumps R5 billion worth of property

Growthpoint has disposed of eight properties, collectively valued at R2.9 billion, over the past nine months.

This puts the real estate investment trust (REIT) on track to exceed its target of R3.5 billion by the end of June 2026, with the company projecting R5.1 billion worth of disposals.

Growthpoint is South Africa’s biggest JSE-listed REIT, with assets worth more than R157.5 billion and a market cap of R61.7 billion.

It operates mostly in South Africa, but over a third of its assets are located in the rest of Africa, Australia, Poland, and Romania. One of its most notable local assets is the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town.

On Wednesday, 24 June, Growthpoint released an investor update for the nine months through March 2026.

This update showed that Growthpoint’s 2026 financial year is set to reflect a strong performance, with the REIT having made progress on many of its strategic initiatives.

Notably, Growthpoint is well on its way to reaching and exceeding its asset disposal target of R3.5 billion by the end of its 2026 financial year.

This target is aimed at decreasing the relative weighting of Growthpoint’s Office sector by exiting non-core assets while retaining exposure to targeted business nodes.

So far, disposals have included B-grade office assets, which followed the sale of all C-grade office assets, as well as assets that are not aligned with the portfolio’s long-term objectives from a return and concentration risk perspective.

For example, the company recently disposed of its 55% stake in Discovery’s Sandton head office for R2.3 billion.

Beyond reaching its R3.5 billion disposal target, Growthpoint projected that total asset disposals will reach R5.1 billion for the 2026 financial year.

At the same time, Growthpoint has been reinvesting much of the capital raised from the disposal into its dominant retail assets and modern Logistics and Industrial Warehouses.

Growthpoint doing well in South Africa

Growthpoint’s update also revealed that the firm’s South African portfolio is going strong, with vacancies set to improve from 8.2% to 7.3%.

This, the firm said, was driven by strong leasing activity in its Office and Logistics sectors. 

In addition, the firm reported that South Africa’s overall renewal rental growth rate improved from -4.0% at 31 December 2025 to -2.8%.

Growthpoint said it benefited from a slower rate of decline in Office rental reversions and improved performance in the Logistics & Industrial sector.

In fact, Growthpoint is set to report the highest lease renewal success rate in a decade, at 79.1%.

“All three sectors recorded improvements, with the Office sector showing the most notable improvement,” it said.

Another standout performer in the past nine months has been the V&A Waterfront, which reported very low office and retail vacancies, at 0.5% and 0.45%, respectively.

Growthpoint said like-for-like performance across its retail portfolio remained positive, with retail sales increasing by 5.1% year-on-year.

The retail portfolio benefited from sustained footfall, an improved tenant mix, and strong event-driven activities. 

Footfall in March 2026 exceeded 2.4 million visitors, up 1.2% year-on-year, while rolling 12‑month retail sales growth was 6.9%. 

Growthpont said turnover rental and other variable income streams exceeded expectations, with trading density and average spend per visitor continuing to improve. 

In addition, low vacancy levels of approximately 0.45% and strong leasing execution, including positive renewal reversions, continued to support earnings visibility and portfolio quality.

However, Growthpoint noted some risks that emerged over the nine-month period, including higher interest rates and inflation, which put pressure on consumers and can affect tenant affordability. 

“Currently, the indicative outcome remains aligned to prior guidance, although we have adopted a more conservative outlook beyond the guidance period,” Growthpoint said. 

Growthpoint’s results for the 2026 financial year will be released on Wednesday, 9 September 2026.