Stellar 2025 for listed property, and these were the top Property Pod episodes

2025 will go down as a stellar year for listed property or South African real estate investment trusts (Reits) on the JSE, as highlighted by my colleague and host of MoneywebNOW, Simon Brown, in his interview with Keillen Ndlovu last week.

Final performance stats for the year will be out in the first week of January, but the sector is currently up around 20% for 2025 from a pure share price surge perspective (according to the SA Property Index).

When you add dividends or based on total returns, major Reits like Growthpoint, Redefine, Vukile Property Fund and Resilient have returned over 40% year to date.

Despite the strong performance of listed property, The Property Pod’s top five podcasts in terms of listens for 2025 do not feature JSE-listed Reit CEOs.

However, the top listened-to podcast is linked to SA’s largest listed property group, Growthpoint. Despite being published just a few weeks ago, in the Number 1 spot is my interview with the incoming CEO of the V&A Waterfront, Graham Wood.

1. The man with Cape Town’s dream job [November]

You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here.

Perhaps it was the headline, but there has also been tremendous interest in the V&A Waterfront, which has major billion-rand projects underway, in addition to the future and much-vaunted more than R20 billion Granger Bay expansion.

Moneyweb has been on top of covering these developments over the past year. Growthpoint jointly owns the iconic Waterfront on a 50-50 basis with the Government Employees Pension Fund.

Read:
Cape Town gets ‘seven-star’ Marriott Edition hotel
Iconic V&A Waterfront market relocated as R20bn Granger Bay expansion continues
Sun International increases dividends despite Table Bay revamp closure

It is regarded as SA’s top tourist attraction, being home to several hotels, upmarket shopping, yacht moorings, a cruise terminal, heliport, restaurants, the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, and the Two Oceans Aquarium.

Hotels, tourism and game-changing hospitality developments and precincts feature strongly in The Property Pod’s top five podcasts this year.

Coming in at Number 2 was my interview in September with Marcel von Aulock, CEO of JSE-listed hotels giant Southern Sun. It was a wide-ranging interview, from hotel developments to increased occupancies within the group, but also industry issues, including the woes at South African Tourism.

2. ‘It’s a disgrace’ what’s happening at SA Tourism – Southern Sun chief [September]

You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here.

Southern Sun is a group to watch, with major new hotel projects planned in Durban and Cape Town. Have a listen to the podcast again, it has some gems of information and stories that Moneyweb is following up on.

The R2 billion Club Med SA beach resort development on the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) North Coast took the Number 3 spot of top listened-to episodes of The Property Pod in 2025. I spoke with Chris du Toit, development manager at Collins Residential and project lead on the Club Med project, who gave us an update on the development.

Collins Residential is leading the venture, which is being touted as the most significant resort project in SA since Sun City was built in the late 1970s. The beach resort is set to open in mid-2026.

3. Club Med SA beach resort will ‘change the North Coast forever’ [September]

You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here.

Another KZN development featured in this year’s top five list of podcasts, the Renishaw Coastal Precinct, in which JSE-listed agri group Crookes Brothers is involved. It comes in at Number 4, but this largely residential development is on the South Coast of the province.

I spoke with Barto van der Merwe, managing director of Renishaw Property Developments, who shared insights on the overall mixed-use property node and why the South Coast is making a comeback on the KZN property scene.

4. Renishaw Precinct draws attention to KZN’s upper South Coast [October]

You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here.

The fall in SA interest rates has been a big factor in the better performance of the property sector in 2025, not just for JSE-listed Reits but almost all property sub-sectors.

For the residential sector, another contributing factor was the reduction in transfer duty fees in the SA budget, which was retained in the final version 3.0 of Enoch Godongwana’s May budget.

Rounding off the top five podcasts of The Property Pod in 2025 was my interview in April with Chantal Marx from FNB Wealth and Investments, who spoke about the adjustments to property transfer duty brackets in SA.

5. SA home buyers now paying lower transfer duty fees [April 2025]

You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here.

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