November 12 15:30
Umhlanga, South Africa
Umhlanga has become one of South Africa’s most sought-after tourism destinations – a place where the energy of Durban meets the ease of coastal living. Its beaches, warm climate, growing culinary scene and expanding business district have transformed it from a seasonal holiday town into a year-round destination for leisure and business travel.
Durban welcomed approximately 1.2 million visitors during the 2025 festive season, with accommodation occupancy rising to 77% – reflecting renewed tourism momentum across the region and the growing importance of Umhlanga and the North Coast.
Yet Umhlanga’s hotel landscape remains largely dominated by traditional luxury hotels, corporate brands and conventional serviced apartments. BlackBrick Umhlanga has been created to offer something different: a design-led, experience-rich hotel that remains accessible to the modern South African traveller.
Opening 1 December 2026, the 81-room hotel will bring together contemporary South African design, hospitality, culture, wellness and work in one connected destination. Every room will have uninterrupted sea views, creating an immediate connection to the coastline.
BlackBrick Hotels was founded in Johannesburg in 2018 around a simple belief: hotels should be more than places to sleep. They should become active parts of their neighbourhoods – places where visitors and locals can meet, work, eat, exercise, exchange ideas and experience the culture around them.
From its first property in Sandton, the network expanded across Johannesburg and into Cape Town through BlackBrick Foreshore and BlackBrick Gardens. Each property responds to its neighbourhood while sharing a common purpose: enabling guests to stay, connect and think freely.
That philosophy is expressed through three pillars – Culture, Wellness and Work – with art, food, movement, flexible workspaces and community programming integral to the experience. Its design philosophy is one of elevated essentialism: fewer unnecessary layers, more thoughtful spaces and what the contemporary traveller actually needs.
Umhlanga, however, represents a particularly significant chapter.
BlackBrick co-founders Jonathan Liebmann and Moritz Wellensiek were both raised in Durban, making the opening something of a homecoming – and the completion of the first stage of a national network connecting Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban.
“Umhlanga feels very personal to us,” says Liebmann. “Moritz and I grew up in Durban, so to bring BlackBrick back to the city that shaped us – after building the brand across Johannesburg and Cape Town – feels like the story coming full circle. But we’re returning with a very different idea of what a hotel can be.”
Designed by System Architecture, with interiors by Hector & Bailey, BlackBrick Umhlanga will reflect the relaxed character and subtropical energy of KwaZulu-Natal. Beyond its rooms, the hotel will include Doughed Pizza, Humble Coffee, a rooftop tapas bar and spaces to work, meet and spend time throughout the day.
The ocean remains part of the experience throughout – from yoga and Pilates in the morning to shared plates and drinks on the rooftop as the day winds down.
The ambition is not simply to add another hotel to Umhlanga, but to create a living part of the neighbourhood: equally relevant to the guest staying for a week, the entrepreneur meeting over coffee, the local joining a wellness session or friends gathering for dinner.
“People increasingly want the freedom to move between cities without having to choose between a hotel, an apartment, a workspace and a social life,” says Wellensiek. “BlackBrick brings those things together. Umhlanga gives us the opportunity to do that in a very different setting – one where the beach, climate and way of life become part of the hotel experience rather than simply its location.”
The opening comes as lifestyle hotels continue to gain ground internationally. Wellensiek estimates they accounted for approximately 18% of hotel rooms opening globally in 2025, compared with 8% in 2000, as travellers move away from purely functional stays towards places with stronger identities, local relevance and opportunities for work, wellness and social connection.
“This reflects a deeper change in what people expect from hospitality,” says Liebmann. “Travellers want hotels that feel connected to their location, express a clear point of view and offer more than standardised rooms and services. They want places that enrich the way they spend their time.”
South Africa has the culture, creativity, architecture, food and natural beauty to participate meaningfully in that shift. BlackBrick’s proposition is to bring those elements together in a lifestyle-hotel model that is design-led and culturally relevant without reserving the experience for the top end of the market.
With BlackBrick Umhlanga, a journey that began with a single building in Sandton now connects three of South Africa’s key cities.
It is more than another pin on the BlackBrick map. For its Durban-raised founders, it is also a return to where it all began.
BlackBrick is coming home.
247@propertyflash.co.za
