Director of Broll Property Group's Gauteng commercial division Fran Teagle says, with the exception of Sandton CBD, the highest demand for office property is being experienced for buildings with a façade on the province’s highways, major commuter routes and other visible locations, especially along Jo’burg’s M1, N1 and N3 highways.

“Woodmead North has benefited exceptionally from this demand for visibility with a number of large deals secured along this prime highway frontage,” says Teagle.

Central Street in Houghton also provides office sites with high levels of visibility, however Teagle points out that there is very little availability in this area.

Likewise the prestigious mixed-use Melrose Arch offers exceptional visibility but, with the exception of a few small sublets, it is fully occupied. “This landmark location with rentals suited to very profitable companies will be bringing new office developments to the market for occupation only in 2009 and 2010,” says Teagle.

Another benefit that high visibility areas provide, almost without exception, is good accessibility for both staff and visitors alike. “Ease of access and the ability to be seen are major considerations for companies selecting a new office location. Making buildings in these locations even more desirable to tenants is the option for naming rights or highly visible external signage opportunities,” notes Teagle.

This trend is expressed differently in Durban with gross rental and proximity to staff taking precedence over visibility, which Colin Sher, regional director of commercial broking for Broll in Durban notes is merely a ‘nice-to-have’. Accessibility is also not a top-priority for most corporates selecting premises notes Sher, as Durban has good road networks.

“With Durban having ‘regional’ as opposed to head offices, tenancies are significantly smaller and the desire for visibility is not a top priority. Offices here are predominantly multi-tenanted buildings, with limited signage opportunities,” says Sher.

A scarcity of developable land with highway frontage and access means that it is mainly within office parks that small stand-alone buildings displaying corporate names can be found. However the city’s few branded buildings with great visibility onto arterial roads are located at La Lucia Ridge.

In Cape Town branded office buildings are a new ‘luxury’ with the recent advent of decentralised office nodes, explains regional director of commercial broking for Broll in Cape Town, Colin Harvey.

Most head offices located in Jo’burg range in size up to 10,000m2 whereas in Cape Town regional offices span between 200m2 and 700m2, with the average being some 500m2. Shared space in large office buildings in the CBD, offering no signage opportunities, was virtually the only option for companies until recently.

“CBD traffic-beating decentralised office nodes, such as Claremont, Tyger Valley and Century City, have for the first time provided Cape Town companies with the opportunity to develop offices of the appropriate size, which can carry company branding,” says Harvey. This trend, he explains, is now also emerging on the lower foreshore and at the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront.

However Harvey notes that the opportunity for visible, branded office space has not had a notable impact on rentals in the current market. “Office vacancies in Cape Town are at an all-time low. A lack of available space means there is little variety in the market, limiting choice and curtailing the selectivity of tenants in terms of criteria such as external signage,” points out Harvey.

“If faced with the option of two spaces offering parity of rental, of which only one offers corporate branding opportunities, most Cape Town tenants are likely to choose the building with visible signage,” says Harvey. He however believes that good signage opportunities are still not considered desirable enough by most companies to be able to command premium rentals.