{"id":845620,"date":"2025-12-05T10:06:48","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T08:06:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=845620"},"modified":"2025-12-05T11:18:36","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T09:18:36","slug":"new-r850-million-neighbourhood-coming-to-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/property\/845620\/new-r850-million-neighbourhood-coming-to-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"New R850 million ‘neighbourhood’ coming to South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Major property developers Pareto and Divercity Urban Property Group have started a project to turn offices in Menlyn Office Park into residential apartments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The R850 million development shows how sharply demand has shifted in South Africa\u2019s property market towards residential opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Office space in many areas continues to sit empty, while interest in well-located rental housing keeps growing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of trying to revive old office blocks, the developers are choosing to convert them into apartments that can meet this rising demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The redevelopment will deliver more than 1,200 apartments. Around 460 of these will come from converting the existing three- and four-storey office buildings, while a further 740 units will be built in four new apartment blocks of up to 10 storeys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Construction has already begun. The project aims to create a dense, walkable neighbourhood close to major transport routes and one of South Africa\u2019s busiest shopping centres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The development represents a new direction for Pareto. The company owns many of the country\u2019s largest malls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These include Sandton City, Menlyn Park, Cresta, Pavilion, and Tyger Valley, and they play a major role in driving retail growth and job creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Pareto has a large national and international portfolio, this is its first residential project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company said it wants to diversify and create long-term value by investing in areas like Menlyn, where people want to live close to work, shops and transport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pareto CEO Malose Kekana said the shift reflects how people now prefer to live and move around cities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis development signals our commitment to shaping the next chapter of the Menlyn precinct,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By introducing high-quality residential options next to one of South Africa\u2019s premier malls, we are creating a vibrant, connected node that reflects how people increasingly want to live, work and spend their time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Project follows broader trend in the South African property market<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Pareto is owned by the Government Employees Pension Fund and managed by the Public Investment Corporation, which earlier this year also invested in Divercity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Divercity was chosen as the residential development partner after a competitive process. Divercity is known for its affordable rental housing projects such as Jewel City and Barlow Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company now manages more than 9,250 apartments and has a R3 billion development pipeline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Divercity CEO Carel Kleynhans said they were pleased to work with Pareto on the project. He noted that the Menlyn area has seen strong growth in recent years, partly driven by Menlyn Park Shopping Centre and the newer Menlyn Maine development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both have helped build demand for mixed-use neighbourhoods where people can work, shop and live without relying heavily on traffic or long commutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The offices being redeveloped were originally bought from Old Mutual Property. The site sits just off Lois Avenue, close to major N1 interchanges at Atterbury and Garsfontein.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The office park has long been home to tenants such as Standard Bank and Voetspore. It is also a short walk from Gautrain bus stops and the Menlyn Maine Central Square.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These features are expected to make the new residential precinct attractive to tenants looking for convenience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The developers also said the new apartments will be built within the existing, tree-filled office park and surrounded by more than 400 shops, restaurants and services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This project follows a broader trend in the South African property market. More investors are turning to multifamily rental housing, which is already a well-established investment class in other countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Divercity is one of the founding members of the South African Multifamily Residential Rental Association, whose members control over R40 billion in assets and more than 75,000 rental units across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the first quarter of this year, the association reported occupancy levels of 95.8% and extremely low bad debt of under 1%. Demand continues to far exceed supply.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Major property developers have started a R850 million project to turn offices in Menlyn Office Park into residential apartments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":845626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12755],"tags":[20628,24329,853],"class_list":["post-845620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-property","tag-menlyn-park","tag-parento-and-divercity-urban-property-group","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845620","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\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=845620"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":845633,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845620\/revisions\/845633"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/845626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}