In the twelfth and final episode of The REIT Report on Classic Business (Fine Music Radio), Jackie van Niekerk, Chairperson of the SA REIT Association and Chief Executive Officer of Attacq, joins host Michael Avery to close the season by setting out how the sector moves from recovery to growth and her priorities for the association’s new term.

The conversation concludes a series that covered valuations, interest rates, balance sheets, capital raising, data centres and governance. It also arrives as the sector is in top form. Total returns of 38.6% in 2025 followed 35.8% in 2024, figures that place SA REITs among the top performing property sectors in the world over the past year. Van Niekerk took over as Chairperson from Estienne de Klerk, Group Chief Executive Officer of Growthpoint Properties, at the association’s annual general meeting in July.

For Van Niekerk the shift from recovery to growth shows in the sustainability of distribution and net operating income growth. Picking up Avery’s image of a sector that has spent years eating its vegetables, she argues the point is keeping the healthy diet. The remarkable balance sheet restructuring that followed Covid, maintained through disciplined capital allocation, has delivered strong returns even in a higher interest rate environment, which she regards as a compelling business case for shareholders.

The sector she wants is one that grows better rather than simply bigger. The old model of borrowing to buy the next building has given way to deeper asset and property management, understanding what makes property tick and adapting as society changes. Quality of earnings matters more than multiples of growth, she argues. Macro, geopolitical and oil-price pressures may taper growth in any given year, but distribution growth backed by quality and discipline is what shareholders should expect.

Investor confidence is following. Avery points to the reopening of capital markets, with more than R11.4 billion raised through oversubscribed bookbuilds last year, while Van Niekerk notes that shareholders are looking beyond the next 12 months to what the following 24 and 36 will bring. The global profile is rising too, although she is candid that a weak currency keeps South Africa off some international radars. Larger REITs benefit from inclusion in international tracker funds and the association has made showcasing the asset class to global and emerging market investors a central focus, supported by membership of the Global REIT Alliance and by the Third Edition of the SA REIT Best Practice Recommendations, which keeps reporting consistent so that investors can compare apples with apples.

Van Niekerk also inherits an association that is itself being redesigned, with seven standing committees consolidated into three delivery portfolios that draw on member expertise as needed. The purpose, she explains, is to advance and protect members’ interests, strengthen the sector and build trust and confidence in a market that must remain visible and credible, working alongside the JSE and advocating with bodies such as the South African Property Owners Association. She pays warm tribute to De Klerk for building the foundation, noting he remains available to the Executive Committee as Strategic Advisor. She also deflects credit to the association’s Chief Executive Officer Joanne Solomon as the driving force behind the organisation, a tribute Avery echoes for her role in assembling the season’s guests.

On South Africa itself, Van Niekerk sees a genuine realisation of the extent of the local government crisis, with business increasingly drawn into infrastructure advisory roles and collaboration between government and the private sector improving, evidenced close to home by a major new government-built road just launched at Waterfall City. Progress, she concedes, remains slow. Avery’s observation is that property executives are committed to South Africa almost by definition, since you cannot lift up a mall and take it with you when things turn.

Asked where a REIT allocation fits in a portfolio, Van Niekerk sees a little of everything depending on the counter, with specialised REITs delivering capital as well as income growth, new listings starting to emerge and larger players offering solid income that should beat inflation. Her own view is that property is best understood as a total return play: A real asset with real valuations, real income and real leases behind it. Avery closes the season with what he calls the more interesting question: Having repaired its balance sheets and won back capital and confidence, what does the sector do with its second chance?

The REIT Report is a twelve-part podcast series produced in partnership with the SA REIT Association and Property Flash.

Listen to Episode 12:  https://iono.fm/e/1706424