Wholly black-owned property developer, manager and investor Akani Properties is investing more than R600-million in new shopping mall developments and refurbishments in anticipation of a post-Covid economic recovery within the next 12 to 18 months.

Unfazed by the third wave of Covid-19 infections, which has seen the country placed on Alert Level 4 for at least two weeks until July 11, the company plans to invest R370-million in the Autumn Leaf Mall development in Zeerust, in the North West, as well as R228-million on upgrades to the Glen Village Mall, in Pretoria East.

Akani MD Zamani Letjane said on July 7 that the investment is testament to the company’s belief that “the worst is behind us” and that the recovery of the economy is on the cards.

He noted that the improved management of any future waves of the pandemic and the rollout of the vaccine programme would improve South Africa’s prospects in the medium to long term, despite current setbacks.

The Autumn Leaf Mall is a 20 000 m² shopping centre in Zeerust and is due to open in September 2022.

The Glen Village upgrade project in Pretoria East entails the full refurbishment and extension of the mall and is set to be completed in November 2022.

Akani’s bullish outlook on the commercial property sector is boosted in part by better-than-expected retail numbers – which the Bureau for Economic Research (BER) said were at a six-year high – as shoppers start spending again – buoyed by low-interest rates.

Letjane expects interest rates to stay low even as consumer inflation recently hit a 30-month high of 5.2%.

To mitigate against any possible disruption to power supply, Letjane said all Akani’s new developments will have renewable energy generation capacity to reduce dependency on the already constrained Eskom.

To this end, the company is retrofitting existing buildings with solar photovoltaic for their captive power consumption.

“As long-term investors, we have taken a long-term view on South Africa’s economic recovery. We are also at an advanced stage of developing more shopping malls around the country as we seek to boost our portfolio of retail properties,” added Letjane.