Prroperty group Gold Edge Holdings is to grow its portfolio R480m to become a R600m listed property fund in a deal with property investor Niki Vontas.

Johannesburg - The industrial development zone (IDZ) in the Eastern Cape's second-largest city, East London, is well advanced, with two tenants already signed up and seven deals worth between R3 million and R3.5 billion under negotiation.

MONEYWEB: Welcome to Petro Heydenrych, the chief executive of Iprop –financial results out today for the year to end-September. But you can’t really read to much into these results, Petro, because the company has changed so in the past financial year. Just explain to us – at a board level what made you take the decision to sell off your portfolio and then to move more aggressively into property development?

A large portion of the proceeds from the unbundling of land developer iProp went into debt settlement, the group said yesterday.

Insurance group Momentum is considering raising its R320m cash offer for two Johannesburg north properties, The Mall of Rosebank and the adjoining office block JHI House, says Warren Schultz the chief operating officer of RMB Properties, which is acting on behalf of Momentum.

PROPERTY'S underlying value as a defensive investment opportunity will continue to attract investor focus despite a volatile environment characterised by high interest rates, says Andre Stadler, managing director of Catalyst Securities.

Survey cites oversupply, lower income

PROPERTY loan stock company Paramount Properties has budgeted for an 8% improvement in distributions to 86,4c a linked unit for the current financial year, going against general expectations of flat distributions in the listed property sector.

But some PUT’s and PLS’s are starting to look cheap.

Companies are still not returning to Johannesburg’s city centre. However, many new tenants have taken up office space in recent months.