Leading unit trust company Stanlib announces with effect 1 February 2005 its Multi-Manager Property Fund - run by Marriott Properties and Standard Bank Properties - is closed to new investment. Stanlib head of investments Malcolm Holmes

Listed property loan stock heavyweights Hyprop Investments and Redefine Income Fund are for the first time collaborating on a shopping centre development on the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal.

Investment Property Databank (IPD) and commercial property association Sapoa will host a property investment conference at Sandton Sun on November 3 and 4.

Much is changing on the South African Real estate scene.  Traditional institutional investors are listing major portions of asset portfolios and large owners are divesting in certain market segments and specialist funds and opportunistic investors are moving into these investments with evident success.  How sustainable are these trends?

Those of us with debt to pay off will be sleeping easier thanks to the cheaper money that Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni's interest-rate reductions have brought this past year.

The remaining 40% of Madison Property Fund Managers (Pty) Limited has been acquired by property doyens Wolf Cesman and Marc Wainer, together with Standard Bank Properties.

THE listed property sector recorded a positive performance last month with "little guidance" from the general equities market, bond yields and the recent Reserve Bank monetary policy committee meeting where no further interest rate cut was announced, say investment analysts at Catalyst Securities.

HIGHER retail rentals and low interest rates have helped some listed property companies to turn in profits well ahead of forecasts.

A R98m retail centre is scheduled to open on the Easter weekend in Francistown, Botswana.

Experts ask whether a bubble is developing