April 16 2025 17:40
SOUTH AFRICA
Sarah Divaris, the chief operating officer at Boxwood Property Fund, says she has a vision for inner-city renewal in Cape Town. At 30, she is one of the youngest professionals in South Africa’s property industry.
“The biggest opportunities lie in regeneration: reimagining aging buildings and overlooked sites into vibrant, relevant spaces that meet the needs of the next generation of urban users,” says Divaris.
Eight years ago, she was a UCT Business Science graduate who’d just started working at Boxwood Property Fund.
“The company was in its early stages, but it had a big vision. From the beginning, I was involved in all aspects of the business,” she says.
Today Boxwood Property Fund is one of Cape Town’s larger property investors, investing in retail, commercial and industrial spaces. It has invested around R4.5bn, of which R1.4bn has been into the Cape Town city centre.
Divaris’s mettle was tested with Boxwood’s first acquisition in 2018 when they purchased a portfolio of office buildings from Rebosis Property Fund for R888m. But she says that her favourite project to date has been driving the transformation of the old Shell House in Lower Burg Street into a vibrant, community-inspired space, now aptly called The Box.
The Box, 9 Lower Burg Street
“We redeveloped the ground floor into a public food market, featuring food pods run by entrepreneurs, communal seating, outdoor workspaces and free Wi-Fi, which has proved to be a hit with both tenants and the greater public,” she says.
Divaris said it is vital to have younger people in senior leadership and is passionate about fostering entrepreneurship in South Africa. One of the biggest lessons she has learnt is the importance of confidence.
“This is especially as I’m often the youngest person in the room,” she says.
Since 2017, her role has grown significantly. “Today, I oversee a wide range of projects that have helped grow the business into a diversified property portfolio worth R4.5bn,” she says. “It’s been a journey built on vision, grit and a relentless focus on value creation,” she says.
Cape Town property trends
Her position at Boxwood means she can keep her finger on the pulse of CBD property trends.
“Cape Town is attractive because of its efficient infrastructure, effective governance and lifestyle benefits,” she asserts. “These factors have made it a magnet for both local and international investors. We have a great municipality to thank for this,” says Divaris.
This upward momentum is reflected in numbers, too. According to the State of Cape Town Central City Report 2023 – a year in review (SCCR), published by the Cape Town Central City Improvement District (CCID) and released last year, in 2023, the value of property development in the city centre surged to over R7.3 billion, more than double the figure from 2022.
“We’re seeing fresh demand for quality space, stronger fundamentals and a maturing mixed-use environment,” says Divaris. “I expect this trend to continue, with developers, businesses and residents increasingly committing to the CBD as a dynamic, future-focused hub.”
She gives credit to the CCID, whose work over the past two decades has been instrumental in transforming the CBD’s crime and grime into a vibrant, world-class urban centre.
“Their public-private partnership model continues to set the standard for what a safe, clean, inclusive and investment-ready city core can look like,” says Divaris.
“On the sustainability side, we’re reactivating rooftops, introducing greenery, and repurposing underused areas. We have achieved 4 or 5 Green Star ratings on 70% of our portfolio,” says Divaris.
She is pleased that more workers are coming back to the office.
“There’s a definite return to the CBD,” Divaris states. The latest statistics as per SAPOA’s Q4 2024 Office Vacancy Research Report shows the city of Cape Town had the lowest overall office vacancy rate of 6.5%. The vacancy rate of all the city’s office nodes are now below where they were in the middle of 2022 when the sector’s overall vacancy rate peaked. This signals renewed demand and a growing recognition of the value that in-person work offers,” says Divaris.
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