STANLIB, on behalf of the Liberty Property Portfolio celebrated the official ground-breaking for the R220m Melomed Hospital development in the city of uMhlathuze today with Counsellor Mhlongo - Mayor of the City of uMhlathuze and the Kwa-Zulu Natal Premier - Senzo Mchunu in attendance.

Arrowhead, the JSE-listed property company announced on 6 December, 2013 that it had acquired 31,7% of Vividend Income Fund.

Local analysts are cautiously optimistic about SA's listed property sector.

Wapnick confirms that the much-anticipated merger between Premium and Octodec is now firmly on the cards, given the JSE’s adoption of the new real estate investment trust (Reit) structure 

Despite tough trading conditions, retail-focused Hyprop Investments beat market expectations by declaring a distribution of 357c per unit for the year to December, an 8% increase on the prior year.

The South African listed property index reached a record high of 385,70, thanks to an increase in demand from both institutional and retail investors.

SOUTH African listed property has been the best-performing asset class so far this year, returning 10,57%, ahead of equities with 4,06%%, cash 3,55% and bonds 5,61%.

The listed property sector will continue to see distribution growth next year, albeit at lower levels than in the past few years.

In it's first major acquisition in 15 months, listed property loan stock company ApexHi Properties has bought a 34,85% interest in Ambit Properties for R597,9m.

The worst could be over for the listed property sector, which has experienced severe volatility this year, provided there are no nasty interest rate surprises in the next quarter.