Tigere to invest in Bulawayo

LISTED real estate investment trust (REIT) Tigere Property Fund (Tigere), which is an affiliate of Terrace Africa Asset Management is eyeing to invest in the property market in the southern region of the country with Bulawayo being one of the targets.

Tigere is the first and the only REIT listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE).

The company was listed last year and it has already declared dividends twice to investors with the third one scheduled in the next three weeks.

In his presentation during the just-ended REITs inaugural conference in Bulawayo, Terrace Africa managing director Mr Brett Abrahamse said the listing of the firm has boosted its profile.

He said the focus is on seeking investment opportunities in Matabeleland.

“We want to be represented in Bulawayo and other towns such as Gweru because we believe this is an important corridor. Over time, we will definitely grow and diversify into other areas

REITs are investment securities that enable the issuer to pool investors’ funds for the purpose of investing in real estate. In exchange, the investors receive units in the trust and as beneficiaries of the trust share profits from the real estate assets.

Terrace Africa Asset Management has properties in South Africa, Zambia, and Mozambique.

Other new investments are also in the pipeline, where Mr Abrahamse told the delegates at the conference that work has already commenced for the construction of an integrated office park as well as a shopping mall at the Showgrounds in Harare.

He also said Zimbabwe has good potential in the growth of the properties sector saying that following the history of the country, its citizens believe in fixed assets as a store of value.

“I expect the sector to continue performing well. There are subsectors within the properties sector that we think can perform better than others.

“We are still seeing a shortage of houses as people want to own their homes than rent, and on the commercial side, we are about to witness a strong uptake in activities which are industrial, warehousing as well as retail.

“In the next 10 years we will see cities that will develop from these developments which are about to come,” he said.

To buttress the point that Zimbabwe has potential in real estate investments, Mr Abrahamse said their properties in Harare have 100 percent occupancy.

The Government has been calling for public-private partnership in infrastructure development which also consists of residential houses in which Bulawayo alone has a backlog seating at 125 000.

The Second Republic is moving aggressively to clear a 1,2 million housing waiting list backlog with plans to pull down colonial structures in the country’s old suburbs to build back better facilities that are in tandem with the country’s vision to be an upper-middle-income economy by 2030.

This has seen the Government launching the Zimbabwe National Human Settlements Policy (ZNHSP).

Under ZNHSP, the country aims to build 225 000 housing units by 2025 with construction, which will have a ripple effect on other sectors of the economy such as the manufacturing industry, already underway. — @SikhulekelaniM1