V&A Waterfront experiences major tourism rebound

Growthpoint Properties says it had seen income in its 50% share of the V&A Waterfront increase by more than a fifth as South Africa's iconic retail and entertainment site benefitted from a major rebound in domestic and foreign tourism.

The company, which is valued at just under R40 billion on the JSE and is SA's largest property counter, said distributable income at the V&A had risen 21.5% to R688.4 million in the year to end June 2023 as travellers returned in droves to the landmark property.

Growthpoint, which reported that group revenue increased by 5.3% to R13.7 billion and operating profit grew 2.1% to R8.9 billion, also flagged there were signs that "some fundamentals" in the retail and industrial property sectors were improving. South Africa's office market, which had been significantly hit by vacancies in the wake of Covid-19, also appeared to have "stabilised".

In South Africa, over 1.19 million square metres of space was let during the year, with vacancies improving to 9.2% from just over 10% in the same period last year.

But Growthpoint still noted that "letting conditions" would remain challenging until South Africa's economy entered a "growth phase", adding that renewal success when leases came up for renegotiation had declined to 64.9% for the period from 75.1% for the same period last year.

It declared a dividend per share of 130.1c, representing a 1.3% increase on last year's payout.

Growthpoint continued to streamline its South African portfolio, selling 29 properties for R1.5 billion during the period.

Meanwhile, its offshore dividend income grew 7.6% in rand terms to R1.6 billion, with Growthpoint saying that its Australian operation, Growthpoint Properties Australia, had delivered "strong net property income growth" of 19.5%.-Fin24