Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa December/ January 2018/2019

COMMERCIAL 38 Urban Planning – Building sustainable and Resilient cities MARNA VAN DER WALT CEO Excellerate Investors would do well to exercise a degree of caution right now. The tur- bulence which has been the defining feature of South Africa’s political land- scape has had a ripple effect in all ar- eas, and the property industry has not emerged unscathed. The results are vis- ible in the prevalence of a buyer’s mar- ket, even in areas that usually fetch high prices, like Cape Town. At the same time, South Africa’s credit downgrade of 2017 had a long-lasting impact on money circulating through the system: with banks required to hold greater sums in reserve making it more difficult to obtain credit, and government hav- ing to pay more to borrow funds, many businesses have been left with little lee- way in terms of spending. FINANCING 40 Tax Benefits of real estate investing SIAN COHEN Business Development Manager, Green Building Council BRAM GOOSSENS Chairman of the Tax and JSE Com- mittee of the SA REIT Association Sian is to mentor the African win- ner and global finalist in the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ (RICS) Cities for our Future compe- tition in their effort to take home the top prize of £50 000. The competition is being run by RICS, in partnership with the United Kingdom National Com- mission for UNESCO and the Associ- ation of Commonwealth Universities, to encourage young people around the world to think about the challenges fac- ing the world’s cities and to draw upon their imagination and innovative ideas to create real, practical solutions that global cities can implement. Because of the sector’s significant in- vestment offshore in the past three years, and other changes since the first BPR was published, the time is right to take the next step and issue more robust guidance for REITs. The BPR is an evolving document that is meant to reflect new accounting and regulatory issues, address issues raised by asset managers and integrate chang- es proposed by key industry stakehold- ers. SA REIT has embarked on a pro- cess of engagement with a view to revise this financial reporting guide. SA Real Estate Investor Magazine DECEMBER 2018/JANUARY 2019 37

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