March 25 2026 22:00
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
You can throw any cliched word around Dean Macpherson and his team’s plan to energise the state’s plethora of buildings and other real estate assets. The plan to create a state property company with some R155bn worth of assets is ambitious, admirable and, probably necessary. But it needs so much support from committed people. While Macpherson who is Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPW), said in a recent interview with Peter Bruce on the Podcasts from the Edge podcast presented by Financial Mail, that he understands property, that has not yet been proven. Macpherson does not have a background in real estate nor real estate training and he will need to partner with the best in talent to even have a chance of getting a third of that R155bn portfolio to create economic value for South Africans.
Apparently the assets include 88,000 state-owned buildings and 5-million hectares of land.
Macpherson does plan to appoint a project director and should not rush this or any other decision around what could be a ten year project. He plans to establish and implement the management of a government real estate juggernaut with a portfolio worth more than double Growthpoint Properties’ local assets. Growthpoint’s local assets are worth some R67bn while its overall asset base including interests in Eastern Europe, Australia and parts of Africa, is worth R157.5bn.
DPW was somewhat a slow moving and frustrating department under the likes of Patricia de Lille and Property Flash is optimistic that this new idea won’t be delivered in an arduous, frustrating and disappointing fashion.
alistair@propertyflash.co.za
