Feature
said. “The tenant uptake is good because
the trading densities are high. These are
niche centres which are trading very well
at the moment.”
Trends show a rise in demand for centres
offering a mix of office, health and lifestyle
facilities, especially in Johannesburg and
Cape Town where traffic congestion meant
residents wanted to work, exercise, shop
and eat out – all within easy reach.
Market research conducted by Abacus
ahead of the development of Dainfern
showed that the area – Fourways – was
one of the highest growth areas in the
country. The company is opening its next
high-end mixed use retail development
in October in the form of The Sanctuary
in Somerset West – not far from Abacus’s
other celebrated boutique centre,
Waterstone Village.
Days numbered for mega malls
Jaco Odendaal – one of the country’s
leading development visionaries and
Abacus chairman – said there were very
few opportunities left for the construction
of new mega malls unless we accept a
high level of cannibalism. The company’s
last mega mall was the 90 000m² Baywest
Mall.
“There are very few opportunities left
to develop large malls. The market has
reached maturity in that respect. You’ll
see a lot of expansion on large malls, and
a redevelopment of their offerings, but in
terms of demographics, they are basically
fixed for the time being,” he said.
Despite this, super regional malls
remained the best performing assets
over the long term, he said. The company
expected the current economic climate to
gradually improve, he said. “The property
sector is a long-term investment and we
believe that interest rates have reached
their peak. The economy has had slow or
no growth for an extended period, and
in time retail spending will once again
increase as the economy expands and
households have more disposable income,”
Odendaal said.