'Investors shift from office to retail shops'

Published: 10 March 2014

PROPERTY investors in Zimbabwe are shifting focus from office to retail shops due to increased demand for retail space in the central business district (CBD), a local analyst has said.

Addressing stakeholders during a real estate investments meeting in the capital last week, a property analyst Mennard Chekayi said there had been a shift in the property sector where many offices in the CBD were being redesigned to suit retail operations.

"We have realised that at the moment since we moved from 2009 many companies are closing down and people are losing their jobs here and there, but the Zimbabwean person becomes a trader, one would rather buy and sell things and the need for retail space has increased," Chekayi said.

"We have noticed that the private investors have been redesigning their spaces particularly in the CBD from office to retail and that demand has driven retail to perform very well."

He said there has been an additional 20 000 square metres of retail suburban space and 5 000sqm in the CBD as of December 2013 while office developments were about 30 000sqm of new office park space and the industrials were mainly venturing into redesigning to warehousing.

He, however, said the rental market had seen rentals stabilising since introduction of the multi-currency system largely as a result of a stable operating environment, increasing areas and protracted legal processes.

"Residential sector with servicing of land and individuals' home development is dominating with resurgence in Institutional Property Development," Chekayi said.

"The residential, those which were within the suburban and the ones who were in the peripherals of the CBD ended up benefiting due to poor services; and high rentals within the CBD resulting in companies preferring to go to the peripherals of the CBD and the suburban's as those areas suddenly became commercial space."

- newsday