International property company Growthpoint Properties has formed a dedicated trading and development business unit.

This new specialised division, the company explained on Tuesday, will play a key role in creating “excellent business opportunities for the company and world-class premises for its clients”.

The new trading and development business unit will combine and integrate Growthpoint’s cross-sector development and trading expertise to optimise its business strengths.

“Growthpoint’s trading and development team is a key part of our business. It has played a significant role in building Growthpoint’s own portfolio. Now, this enables us to provide our clients with an extra service that meets their needs. Besides providing existing buildings we can create new buildings for them that meet their very specific, bespoke requirements,” Growthpoint South Africa CEO Estienne de Klerk said.

Consistent with its prudent and sustainable business model, Growthpoint’s goal is to generate consistent, recurring income from third-party development fees and trading profit that total no more than between 1% and 2% of its distributable income.

Heading the specialised team is Rudolf Pienaar, Growthpoint’s new chief investment and development officer.

“Development plays a key role in Growthpoint’s South African investment strategy with tailormade assets designed to enhance our portfolio and retain and attract quality clients,” he commented.

He noted that, in working closely with the company’s clients, however, Growthpoint has found that some of their needs go beyond simple tenancy.

Pienaar explained that company policy may require clients to own certain types of properties, they might need to dispose of a property asset in order to become a tenant of Growthpoint, or they could require specialised premises that can only be custom developed.

“Our trading and development team is now able to assist with a full suite of property and consulting solutions and can offer a full spectrum of development services.”

Growthpoint also has a portfolio of strategic land holdings comprising prime undeveloped sites in key nodes that secure prominent future positions for clients.

This sector-leading business applies best practice standards and development guidelines, the company highlighted.

For Growthpoint, this includes undertaking responsible developments that consider social and environmental impacts. Also, when suitable, it can deliver solutions that extend beyond the buildings themselves, by adding or improving public infrastructure around developments.

In addition to its variety of in-house skills, Growthpoint works closely with a strong and established network of leading construction and built-environment professionals to deliver holistic, tailormade, end-to-end solutions.

Besides turnkey new developments, redevelopments and refurbishments, its partnerships and joint ventures achieve specific strategic outcomes ranging from de-risking megadevelopments to enabling empowerment transactions and both short- and long-term joint holdings with Growthpoint.

In addition, its trading services focus on creating and unlocking investment value.

“Our aim is to be the leading partner of choice for value-creating property investment and superior, smart and sustainable development. We have gained a lot of experience over the years providing property solutions tailored to the needs of our clients.

“We are excited to leverage this understanding to meet the unique business needs and future growth of our partners across the office, industrial, retail, residential, hospitality, healthcare and mixed-use property sectors,” Pienaar explained.