Macpherson revealed<\/a> that the South African government has a portfolio of properties worth R150 billion to R200 billion. It includes houses, buildings, vacant land, and farms.<\/p>\n\n\n\nHe said spending R65 million on rates and taxes on vacant lands and buildings makes no sense, as these assets could benefit the public and the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBased on the Property Management Information System (PMIS) calculations of holding costs, the estimated potential revenue lost in the 2025 financial year is R83 million,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He explained that the state owns these properties on behalf of the public, and as such, the public should benefit from these properties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Department of Public Works is now starting to explore how it can collaborate with developers to develop these properties and earn money from them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Department has placed 31 properties on the open market and invited interested investors to submit proposals on optimal utilisation and revenue generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe want to run the properties as a property portfolio to generate annuity income for the state and create jobs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said they expect to attract R10 billion in private sector investment through just ten of these properties, create 165,000 jobs, and generate R200 million annually for the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you extrapolate this model across more properties, it could be very beneficial to the state and the country as a whole,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Macpherson explained that the government launches a request for proposals for available properties and then assesses the best case from the proposals it receives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The government issues leases based on the property’s use, with lease periods varying according to that use. Lease periods typically range between 20 and 99 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Apart from partnering with the private sector to develop these properties, the Public Works department is also looking to offload them to municipalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Transferring these properties to municipalities means the state will not have to pay millions in rates and taxes each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The minister added that they would release another 30 properties for long-term leasing and invited interested investors to submit proposals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe department will also re-advertise 600 state-owned properties for general letting out,\u201d Macpherson told parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They will also release agricultural farms that are not earmarked for the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development and Land Reform for long-term leasing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a last step to optimise the state\u2019s property portfolio, it will dispose of non-core residential properties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Public Works Minister Dean Macpherson revealed the government spent R65 million on rates and taxes on 1,259 vacant land parcels, 207 unoccupied houses, and 830 abandoned farms. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":783270,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[20230,8903,22102],"class_list":["post-817904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-dean-macpherson","tag-department-of-public-works","tag-property-management-information-system-pmis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817904"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":817906,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817904\/revisions\/817906"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}