Residential property in an array of forms including student housing is in such high demand that investors who have not dabbled in it before‚ are chasing it.

Latest results from Capital Property Fund, the JSE’s fourth-largest real estate counter, with a market cap of R17bn, underscore the extent to which cashstrapped SA businesses are cutting back on expansion plans.

Old Mutual's decision to withdraw its planned listing of its R12bn Triangle Real Estate Core Fund had deprived investors of the chance to own some of SA’s premier retail assets, as well as the opportunity to significantly increase the listed property sector’s market capitalisation, analysts said last week.

You’d struggle to find a better emblem of the bubbling conflicts of interest that scar the property industry than the Hospitality Property Fund — symptomatic of a sector where “anything goes” is almost a mission statement.

The unit trust, called the Absa Property Equity Fund, will invest in the listed property sector on behalf of retail clients