Another one of South Africa’s biggest malls just sold for R1.6 billion

Retail property group Hyprop has announced that it has acquired Table Bay Mall in the Western Cape for R1.625 billion.

The group announced that it would acquire 100% of the commercial letting enterprise, including the property and lease agreements relating to the mall, as well as the solar panel installation currently being installed.

As rationale for the purchase, Hyprop said that the mall has strong growth potential, being situated in an area that is set to expand over the coming years.

The 67,500 square metre mall is situated in Sunningdale, inland from Blouberg and Big Bay, on Cape Town’s west coast, a region of the Western Cape that is expected to experience above-average growth, due to residential development that is partly driven by relocation trends within South Africa that favour the Western Cape.

Specifically, the centre is located in a high-growth node with the area directly around the mall earmarked for the construction of 5,000 to 7,500 more residential units over the next five to ten years.

In addition to this, residents in the area tend to be medium to high income earners, the group noted.

“The acquisition of Table Bay Mall is a unique opportunity for Hyprop to acquire a premium retail property at a fair market value at a relatively early stage of its life cycle, with the potential to unlock additional growth through active asset management initiatives, including optimising the tenant mix, drawing on Hyprop’s proven retail property management expertise,” it said.

According to Hyprop, the net property income attributable to Table Bay Mall amounted to R108.6 million for the year ended 28 February 2023, and it projects the net property income before depreciation for the period 1 November 2023 to 31 October 2024 at R125.7 million.

It said the transaction is still has to pass competition clearance and meet other conditions, which it hopes to achieve by no later than 30 April 2024.

Solar Panel installation

In addition to the mall, Hyprop said it will pay the sellers R23.3 million in respect of the cost of the solar panels currently being installed on the centre.

Hyprop will complete the installation and commissioning of the solar panels at its cost (estimated to be circa R29 million).

The sale of Table View Mall follows a string of mega-retail centres that have either been put up for sale or have been sold amid difficult trading conditions.

In September, the biggest mall in the Eastern Cape, Baywest Mall, sold for R1.3 billion as part of a wider R7 billion sale of Rebosis properties.

Later that month, the biggest shopping mall in the Free State – Bloemfontein’s Loch Logan Waterfront – was put up for sale by closed tender.

Even as the bigger malls change hands, smaller – but still sizeable – retail centres are cropping up all around the country, typically in more remote areas or regions that are experiencing population growth.

Read: Major new shopping mall opening in South Africa next week – a first for its home town