Redefine Properties, South Africa’s second largest home-based property group, has positioned its portfolio for growth in a world shaped by structural change. The group said at a capital markets presentation that it has aligned its assets with areas supported by long-term demand and everyday economic activity.
Consumer-driven assets now account for 74% of the group’s asset base, reflecting a deliberate strategy to focus on areas with strong demand fundamentals. Speaking at the 2026 Capital Markets Day, CEO Andrew König said Redefine was focused on responding to the forces reshaping how people live, work, shop and use commercial space.
Redefine has centred its strategy on three priorities: strengthening real estate fundamentals, building confidence and accelerating technological adoption. These priorities are shaping where the group allocates capital, how it manages its assets and how it positions the portfolio for sustainable growth.
König said the operating environment is a recurring challenge, where geopolitical events, economic shocks and policy developments can quickly alter market sentiment and reset growth expectations. However, Redefine believes the more significant drivers of long-term value creation lie in the structural changes unfolding across economies and industries.
“Durability is not built in a crisis; it is revealed in one,” König said. This approach is reflected in Redefine’s investments in convenience retail, township and rural retail centres, industrial and logistics assets and energy infrastructure.
Within the retail portfolio, grocery and apparel categories continue to underpin turnover growth, while restaurants are benefiting from the recovery of large-format centres and growing demand for experiential retail. Retailers also continue to invest in physical stores despite the growth of e-commerce, particularly in grocery, pharmacy and value retail formats, such as those found in exceptional retail environments.
Redefine’s response is focused on active asset management rather than simply maintaining existing space. The group is planning approximately 18,700m² of store optimisation initiatives during 2027, while 28,900m² of grocer upgrades are scheduled across the portfolio.
National retailers occupy approximately 72% of retail GLA, while grocers and pharmacies account for 20% of GLA and 16% of gross monthly rental income. Demand for well-located logistics space remains strong, supporting the group’s ongoing repositioning towards higher-quality industrial assets.
Internationally, Redefine’s focus is on opportunities where it can actively create value while improving capital efficiency. In Poland, this has included the continued simplification of joint-venture structures, the recycling of non-core assets and the expansion of emerging asset classes such as self-storage and mini-units.
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Energy security is increasingly influencing both operating costs and tenant demand. Redefine said it responded through a multi-year investment programme focused on embedded generation, wheeling, storage and broader energy resilience. Local solar photovoltaic capacity has grown to 65.3MWp, compared with 40.3MWp in FY23.
Technology was used to improve tenant engagement, operational efficiency and decision-making across the portfolio. AI adoption among employees has reached 76%, supported by organisation-wide deployment of AI-enabled tools.
The focus is no longer on experimentation but on implementation, Redefine said. The group introduced AI-enabled retail websites, automated facilities-management workflows, digital engagement tools and data-driven platforms designed to make it easier for stakeholders to interact with the business.
Supporting these initiatives is a focus on balance-sheet strength, funding flexibility and disciplined capital allocation. “Maintaining financial flexibility is critical to executing our strategy through different market cycles,” said Ntobeko Nyawo, Redefine’s CFO.
Redefine’s see-through loan-to-value ratio improved from 47.3% at the end of the 2025 financial year to 45.1% by the third quarter of its 2026 financial year. The group has also continued to broaden its funding base, refinance debt on more favourable terms and improve debt margins across both South African and Polish operations.
Operational efficiency gains are also beginning to translate into stronger profitability. Group net operating profit margin improved from 76.5% to 77.2%, as it continues to work towards its medium-term objective of achieving operating margins above 80%.
Redefine’s improving property fundamentals are translating into tighter guidance of 6.5% to 7.0% growth in distributable income per share, despite continued macro-economic volatility. With distributable income growth expected to be at the upper end of guidance for the 2026 financial year, Redefine said the combination of disciplined capital allocation, proactive sourcing of capital, operational efficiency and targeted investment is creating a more durable growth platform.
They expect to achieve this growth through their focused strategy.
