Growthpoint Properties, South Africa’s largest JSE-listed REIT with a market capitalisation exceeding R59 billion, has spent the past decade steadily pulling capital out of Johannesburg — and its own annual reports read like a case study in municipal failure.
The company has purposefully disinvested from Gauteng and Johannesburg in favour of higher-growth coastal regions, citing changing economic conditions, weak municipal services, and stronger growth prospects along the coast.
Rates Watch readers will recognise the pattern: Growthpoint’s 2025 report singled out Sandton as “an area of weakness, constrained by unreliable municipal infrastructure and services,” with property owners facing runaway municipal cost increases for services that are being delivered less and less reliably, alongside a lack of infrastructure maintenance.
When the country’s biggest property investor votes with its capital and names the City of Johannesburg’s service delivery collapse as a direct driver, it’s a stark warning for every ratepayer still footing the bill for a municipality in decline.
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