J SE-listed Tongaat Hulett CEO Peter Staude told shareholders and analysts recently that of the company’s land assets, 39% was either in the process of undergoing an environmental-impact assessment, being released from agriculture, had formally submitted a planning and development application, was shovel ready or had final approval and was entering the start of construction of buildings and infrastructure. The estimated timeframes for the different stages were 24 months, 8 months, 1 month and 3 months respectively. Staude was pleased with the progress the company was making in converting cane land for property development, while continuing to develop its cane supply, particularly in rural areas. Tongaat Hulett said that, in the past four years, it had created some 7 175 jobs in rural areas through the planting of 28 687 ha. Speaking at the company’s results presentation for the year ended March 31, Staude outlined the second version of its ‘Portfolio of Land Conversion in KwaZulu-Natal’. Land conversion yielded an operating profit of R829-million from the sale of 108 developable hectares during the year, a decline from the R1-billion generated from the sale of 259 developable hectares in the previous year. The company identified seven demand drivers for the conversion of land, for which it provided possible five-year sales outcomes for each. Developable hectares for high-intensity urban mixed use was expected to range between 80 ha and 150 ha, with profit for every developable hectare between R22-million and R35-million. The housing markets were the second demand driver listed, comprising midmarket housing, affordable housing and government-subsidised housing. Midmarket housing ranged between 125 and 175 developable hectares at R3.5-million to R6-million per developable hectare. Affordable housing ranged between 20 and 150 developable hectares at a profit of R2.5-million to R3.8-million. Government-subsidised housing was expected to require between 200 and 722 developable hectares at R2-million to R2.4-million per developable hectare. The third demand driver was high-end markets, which entailed city hotels and residences, coastal resorts and high-end residential developments. Collectively, high-end markets were expected to demand between 34 and 116 developable hectares, with profit between R21.5-million and R39-million per developable hectare. Residential services were the fourth demand driver, with developable hectares at between 15 and 66 developable hectares expected to generate a profit of R3.8-million to R6-million per developable hectare. The office market ranged from 7 to 50 devel- opable hectares, which was expected to yield a profit of R6-million to R15.4-million per developable hectare. Warehousing, logistics, industrial, business park, manufacturing and big box retail were the sixth demand driver, which Tongaat Hulett estimated could see demand for between 150 and 350 developable hectares, at R6-million to R9.5-million each. Unique clusters of opportunity were the last demand driver, ranging between 4 and 200 developable hectares at R4-million to R7.5-million per developable hectare.