ACTING on instructions of the Safety, Security and Justice Property portfolio, a group of police stations, courts and Department of Justice properties are to be auctioned.

According to Auction Alliance, which will be wielding the gavel, this portfolio represents one of the most interesting property rationalisation auctions conducted this year.

"It gives would-be investors an opportunity to have the country's safest tenants in their properties," said Norman Raad of Auction Alliance.

The properties which are being submitted to auction are in various parts of the country. Kicking off the national auction spree on June 15 will be the sale of police offices in Voortrekker Road, Parow. This will be followed by the Magistrate's Court building in Hopefield in the Western Cape. The Hopefield Magistrate's Court is a landmark in this small West Coast town and according to Raad, the company's Cape rural branches have been inundated with local interest.

Thursday sees the auction road show moving to the Eastern cape where a large property in the heart of Port Elizabeth Central will come up for sale. The Govan Mbeki property with almost 5 000m2 of lettable space will form part of PE central's rejuvenation, a trend which has been sweeping all of South Africa's central business districts.

Later on the same day, a magnificent colonial building housing the Department of Justice will be sold in Somerset East at the foot of the Bosberg Mountains.

A police station in Main Reef Road, Randfontein, will be sold on Monday June 21 followed by an agricultural holding in Heidelberg, also with an anchor tenant. Completing the national auction road show will be the sale of one of the Pinetown police offices, which houses the squad conducting asset controls.

"These properties represent great value for would-be investors. What more could a landlord want than a tenant such as a court?" said Raad. "And the sound of gavels being knocked down will continue in the courts long after the auctioneer's gavel is knocked for the last time."