Nick Wilson

Property Correspondent

OLD Mutual Properties has conducted an independent valuation of popular tourist destination the Victoria & Alfred (V&A) Waterfront, saying it could help guide negotiations on the sale of Transnet’s 26% interest in the Cape Town property asset.

Derick van der Merwe, MD of the waterfront management company, said the valuation was confidential and intended for internal use only.

The valuation covered 77 buildings totalling more than 300000m² and comprised 24 retail properties, four parking garages, 27 office buildings, five hotels, eight fishing industry buildings and several marine and other leisure-related properties.

The valuation project excluded the residential marina development.

There has been widespread interest in the V&A Waterfront since Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said in February that Transnet would offload its investment in the development.

At the time Stuart Chait, CEO of Cape Town-based Property Partners, which owns the subsidiary Southern Palace that bought Johannesburg’s mixed-use development Melrose Arch for a record R1,27bn, said he thought the V&A Waterfront would be worth "between R3bn and R3,5bn on a thumb suck" and that his group would be an interested buyer.

Property economist and valuer Erwin Rode said yesterday that excluding any debt attached to the property, the V&A Waterfront was probably worth "in the vicinity" of R2bn.

"It’s the prime land in Cape Town. You don’t get better. Without a doubt the V&A is the crown jewel of the property market in SA," he said.