The company reported an overall loss for the year of R563 million from last year's profit of R1 billion.

Marc Wainer, CEO of Redefine said however that the group had made significant progress in implementing its strategy of restructuring and improving the quality of its core property portfolio.

Wainer said Redefine would concentrate the bulk of its portfolio in the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. Within these areas, most of the portfolio would be located in so-called "hotspots" for offices and industrial premises.

Impairment of financial assets, property, plant and equipment and goodwill was reported as increasing from an outflow of R64 million to R843 million.

Operating costs were seen higher as well. These costs represented 26.5% (2010: 21.5%) of contractual rental income with roughly a quarter of this increase arising from higher local municipal and electricity charges that were not fully recoverable from tenants. It also included non-recurring costs from internalising property management, which Redefine believed would enhance its tenant offering and improve efficiencies and economies.

Headline earnings per linked unit declined to 71.22 cents for the year to August 31 from 98.11 cents the year before.

Redefine said that based on the property portfolio restructuring strategy, the number of South African properties would decline from 358 to around 260 and the average property value would increase from R50 million to R80 million. The total portfolio value would increase to some R20 billion.

"We are convinced we are making the right decisions at the right time with the medium- and long-term benefits of all of our stakeholders in mind. Hopefully this will be reflected in our distribution growth and the increase in net asset value over time," Wainer said.