Hyprop Investments, a shopping mall owner with clients including Body Shop and Timberland, wants to raise almost R1bn in bonds to reduce its debt-servicing costs.

Operating cost increases continue to have a negative effect on income growth in the commercial property sector.

South Africa’s listed property sector declined by 1% during the week ending 15 March 2013. This comes on the back of a 7% plus gain so far this year.

South Africa’s listed property sector gained 1.4% during the week ended 15 February 2013. Since the start of the year, both the listed property sector and the FTSE/JSE All Share Index have returned 3.7%, while the bond market has returned just 0.6%.

South Africa’s listed property sector gained 1.3% during the week ended 8 February, after both Resilient and New Europe Property Investments (NEPI) reported results last week. 

South Africa’s listed property sector has started 2013 by climbing 4% in just the first three weeks of trading. The sector climbed 0.60% during the week ending 25 January 2013, despite significant rand weakness and an increase in bond yields. 

South Africa’s listed property sector finished November on a high, gaining 1.8% in the final week. For the month of November, the sector gained 6.7%, comfortably outperforming both the equity (2.6%) and bond (0.9%) markets in South Africa.

South Africa’s listed property sector advanced a very healthy 2.4% last week as the Rand strengthened marginally and foreign selling subsided, says Ian Anderson, chief investment officer at Grindrod Asset Management. 

South Africa’s listed property sector rallied 1.4% last week, after declining significantly in the last two weeks of October 2012. Much of the selling pressure was attributed to a single large foreign investor and last week’s price action suggests this has come to an end. 

In light of the pessimistic economic outlook, it is important to look for good quality equity and listed property shares that have strong dividend/distribution payment histories, attractive current yields and are going to grow the dividend/distribution income stream in the future.