Online Reporter
It’s been well over a year since there’s been a construction crane visible in the Sandton CBD. This would’ve been in late 2023, when shopping centre LXX Sandhurst near the Discovery head office was under construction (it opened in July 2024).
Beyond the immediate CBD, there are currently three cranes at a shopping centre (yes, another one!) under construction at Sandton Gate on Winnie Mandela Drive (near Sandton Drive). There are also a few dotting the skyline towards Barlow Park on Katherine Street.
The days of multiple cranes across the Sandton skyline — maybe a decade ago — are, far gone. During the boom in the mid 2000s, turbo-charged by the Fifa World Cup, there were literally dozens of cranes visible across Sandton’s horizon.
Of course, a period of strong economic growth would change this, but it’s tough to see what the catalyst would be for this. Plus, there’s a glut of office space available in the node.
Growthpoint reported vacancies across Sandton of 20.1 percent at the end of December, while Redefine says its vacancy rate in the area is 11.2 percent. This is an enormous amount of space that would first need to be absorbed by the market, should the economy return to a much higher growth rate. Still, there’s a pile of development plans for ageing buildings or prime space still available in the node that would be dusted off.
There are some regional dynamics at play in Johannesburg as well. Smaller large corporates are increasingly moving their head office campuses to Waterfall, which is arguably a private city within a city (albeit one that is publicly accessible). PwC, Deloitte, Accenture, Premier, DP World (formerly Imperial Logistics) and Sage are just some of those who have relocated their campuses to Waterfall City.
Beyond Sandton, there are some cranes visible in Joburg, but these are in more specialist nodes like Waterfall and Riversands (north of Fourways), which is seeing clear investment in logistics-focused developments. — Moneyweb
