GROWTHPOINT Properties could become the largest listed property fund on the JSE Securities Exchange SA if speculation that it is vying for the assets of Primegro Properties is true.

Shops for Africa, the focused retail property company that listed in the JSE property loan stock sector in July 2001, is aiming to more than treble the value of its portfolio to R1-billion.

IT IS not every day that a property portfolio of the quality of Richway Retail Properties is available for sale at attractive capitalisation rates, say Primegro joint MDs Martin Ettin and Derek Greenberg, who have secured the portfolio.

GROWTHPOINT, an Investec Properties-managed fund, is expanding through a number of projects.

The following is a short synopsis of some of the trends and factors influencing the property market in the CBDs of Gauteng and its decentralised suburbs. This summary should shed some light on the reasons for the rate of office vacancy. 
Panellists generally agree that the recent spate of speculative development has come to a close as evidence of some buildings that have long been completed it becomes increasingly apparent that the market is oversupplied.