This is the view of a number of property players and some explanations given for the improvement of these markets include the strong residential property market, expectations of housing the Pan African Parliament in the Midrand area, as well as the planned Gautrain rail link.

Industrial, office and retail property broker Pace Property Group says that although the office and industrial property market in Midrand has experienced a quiet phase over the past two years, in recent months the area has seen an increasing demand for quality industrial and commercial space.

Grant Stockdale of Pace Property Group says the slump in this real estate sector was partially due to the fact that most of the space was occupied by information technology (IT) and pharmaceutical companies.

When the IT industry went downhill and pharmaceutical companies scaled back manufacturing, the need for commercial and industrial space declined.

But now, Stockdale says, in a spin-off from the upward cycle of the residential market in Midrand, there is a need for industrial and office space that is intensified by the shortage of such space in the more traditional industrial areas such as Isando, Spartan, Jet Park and Elandsfontein, which have almost no vacancies left.

Stockdale says that Gallagher Estate will be the new home of the Pan African Parliament for the next five years and that this has positively affected the demand for office space in the area.

Athol Campbell, CEO of the predominantly industrial-focused listed property loan stock company Pangbourne Properties, agrees with Stockdale about the negative influence of the IT and pharmaceutical industries on the market.

Campbell says the Gautrain will also help boost the industrial and office property markets because it will provide access to Midrand, where traffic congestion is a problem. He agrees that there is strong demand for industrial space in Midrand.

Pangbourne has just completed a new development called Tillbury Business Park and that it is already fully let. The group also owns a 22000m² site adjoining the business park that it is looking to develop.

Meanwhile, Broll Property Group has said that modern industrial space in the greater Johannesburg area is at a premium and availability will get worse before it gets better because there is little in the way of new development .

Alan Hendricks, a development and land specialist in Broll's industrial division, says that there has been a steady take-up of industrial space over the past two years.

In a quarterly property report issued to clients recently, Broll assessed the industrial market in Midrand. Vacancies have fallen from 170000m² in the second quarter of 2002 to just more than 100000m² two years later.

Hendricks says improved economic conditions, lower interest rates, the changing needs of industrial space users and the emergence of the logistics industry are just some of the factors that have driven demand for hi-tech industrial space in recent years.

Norbert Sasse, executive director of listed property loan stock companies Metboard Properties and Growthpoint Properties, says that as far as the industrial property-focused Metboard is concerned, it has seven industrial properties in Midrand equating to 32500m² of space, all of which is let.

Sasse says that as far as industrial space is concerned, there is strong demand for space.