Property

Major turn for South Africa’s largest shopping mall

Luke Fraser

 ·31 Jul 2026

Fourways Mall continues to see major improvements, with South Africa’s largest shopping mall reducing its vacancies.

The mall, which measures at 178,000 sqm of gross lettable area, has faced a challenging few years amid heightened vacancies, severely hurting its owners, Accelerate Property Fund (APF) and Azrapart.

The mall is the most significant asset for JSE-listed APF, which noted that it is seeing significant improvement under the independent management of Flanagan & Gerard and the Moolman Group.

In its latest results for the year ending 31 March 2026, the group saw its vacancy rate improve by four percentage points to 9.7%.

Average trading density also increased by 8.4% to R2,621/m2 a month. The mall also averaged more than 1 million visitors per month and recorded more than 1.7 million visitors in December 2025.

Flanagan & Gerard and the Moolman Group focused on leasing, tenant mix, customer experience and day-to-day management

Leases covering 4,342 sqm have also been secured for the new luxury Fourways View development at an average rental of R201.80 sqm.

Tenants for Fourways View include the Pantry, George’s Grill, Tashas, Fournos, Liquor Lane, Nossa Casa, The Glow Theory, Petworld and The Piercery.

The Pantry signed a ten-year lease, while many other tenants committed to five-year terms. A preliminary launch date of 1 October 2026 has been set for the luxury precinct.

Financials

During the financial year, APF reduced its gross debt by approximately R777.3 million to R3.0 billion.

The improvement was mainly due to the fund’s disposal programme, with APF selling four properties and a vacant stand for R788.5 million during the year.

A further five properties and stands were transferred after year-end, generating net proceeds of R278.2 million for debt reduction.

This included an agreement to sell BMW Fourways to CFAO Mobility Properties Proprietary Limited for R174.0 million.

Its portfolio fell from 19 to 15 properties during the year, with total GLA declining by 20.0% to 235,922 sqm.

The value of the property portfolio, including assets held for sale, dropped to R6.6 billion from R7.75 billion, but this was mainly due to the disposal programme and fair-value adjustments.

Revenue for the period declined to R678.9 million from R760.2 million, while rental income declined to R517.2 million from R609.2 million, with the prior year including R62 million headlease income at Fourways Mall.

Net property income, excluding straight-line rental income, declined by 14.1% to R424.8 million due to a smaller portfolio.

The group also recorded a far lower after-tax loss of R45.9 million, compared to a loss of R1.27 billion in the prior year.

Headline earnings also improved to a positive R383.0 million, compared to a headline loss of R995.4 million a year prior.

Other income for the business included an R82.5 million Covid-19 business-interruption insurance settlement, while the group also derecognised a R300.0 million related-party payable.

After adjustments for Fourways Mall capital expenditure requirements and additional expenditure for the sale properties, distributable income amounted to 0.09 cents per share.