Buy, sell, or restructure — both sides of the transaction, run by one person.

Commercial property acquisitions and disposals aren't just transactions — they're capital allocation decisions. Get the structure right and you create real value. Get it wrong and you carry the cost for years.

I work both sides of the deal. On the buy side, I source opportunities — including off-market stock that never reaches the public listings — and structure the acquisition to support the broader strategy, not just the square-metre brief. On the sell side, I position the asset, target the right buyer pool, and drive the process to close at the strongest achievable price. Both sides are about the same underlying skill: knowing the market, knowing the participants, and running a disciplined process.

Acquisitions

You've identified a growth opportunity that needs physical space, a consolidation play that needs a specific building, or an investment thesis that requires the right asset to execute against. My job is finding the right property — often before the open market sees it — and structuring the acquisition so it actually delivers on the strategic objective.

That includes due diligence (financial, legal, technical), price negotiation against comparable market evidence, deal structuring, and managing the full close-out. Common scenarios I work:

• Owner-occupation buy-side mandates. Corporates moving from leasing to owning — sourcing the building, modelling the financial case versus continued leasing, structuring the acquisition through the appropriate vehicle.
• Strategic acquisitions of vacating assets. Identifying buildings where a major occupier is winding down, then positioning a buyer (corporate or institutional) before the asset lists publicly. The University of Johannesburg transaction is one example — see the case.
• Investment acquisitions for property funds. Sourcing income-producing assets that match a fund's sector, geographic, and yield criteria. Off-market visibility matters disproportionately here.
• Portfolio expansion for existing owners. Adding adjacent or strategically aligned assets to an existing holding. Often involves working with a property fund or family office on a longer brief.

Disposals

Selling commercial property in South Africa is rarely about putting a sign on the building. It's about positioning the asset to the right buyer pool, creating enough competitive tension to defend the price, and managing a process that doesn't spook your occupiers or stall on due diligence. I've done it for corporates exiting non-core property and for owners restructuring their portfolio.

Common scenarios I work:

• Non-core asset disposals for corporates. Buildings that no longer fit the operational footprint — wrong location, wrong size, wrong configuration. The capital is more useful elsewhere; my job is to release it cleanly.
• Sale-and-leaseback (covered in detail below). Disposing of the asset while preserving operational continuity in the same building. Common for corporates wanting to release capital without relocating.
• Portfolio rebalancing. Property funds or family offices disposing of assets that no longer match the mandate — either sector misalignment, geographic consolidation, or risk-weighting changes.
• Post-merger or post-restructure rationalisation. Combined portfolios almost always have overlap. I identify what to keep, what to consolidate, and what to dispose — with a sequenced execution plan that doesn't flood the market.

The buyer set in SA commercial property is narrower than it looks. JSE- listed REITs, unlisted property funds, BEE investment vehicles, family offices, and corporate owner-occupiers cover the bulk of activity at mid-to-upper-grade commercial stock. Knowing who's actively deploying capital, who's waiting for the right asset, and what their structuring preferences are — that's where the process work lives.

Sale & Leaseback

You own a building worth R50 million and operate from it. That capital is locked. A sale-and-leaseback releases it — you sell the property to an investor, lease it back on commercial terms, and continue operating from the same address. The cash goes to growth, debt reduction, or other strategic priorities.

The detail matters. Escalation formulas, lease term, break clauses, maintenance obligations, indemnities, exit rights — a poorly structured leaseback trades short-term liquidity for long-term inflexibility. I negotiate the sale price and the lease terms as a single package, because optimising one at the expense of the other is how these deals go wrong.

The right buyer for a sale-and-leaseback isn't always the highest bidder — it's the buyer whose hold period, lease structure preferences, and counterparty profile match what you need for the long term. Selecting that buyer is part of the work.

What I bring to the transaction

• Off-market visibility on the buy side. A meaningful share of premium commercial stock changes hands without ever listing publicly. Direct relationships with property funds, asset managers, and corporate occupiers mean I see those opportunities while they're still private.
• Listed-fund and REIT relationships on the sell side. JSE-listed property funds are still active buyers of well-located assets at the right price. Knowing who's deploying, what sectors they're weighted to, and what their hold-period profile looks like — that's the difference between a slow process and a competitive one.
• Structuring across both sides. Sale-and-leasebacks, contingent components, deferred payments, phased exits, lease-replacement arrangements. A clean structure often unlocks a transaction that wouldn't close on standard terms.
• Single point of accountability. One person running sourcing, negotiation, structure, and close. Not a team that hands the deal between departments. That matters most when the transaction is complex or sensitive.

When does this conversation make sense?

• Capital is trapped in property. You own buildings that are appreciating slowly while the business needs cash for growth, debt reduction, or acquisitions of other kinds.
• The portfolio has dead weight. Assets in the wrong location, wrong condition, or wrong size. Every month of holding cost is a slow drain.
• A merger, acquisition, or restructure is creating overlap. Combined portfolios almost always have surplus. The question is which assets to keep, which to consolidate, and the sequence to dispose of the rest.
• Off-market buy-side opportunity is in play. A vacating tenant, a fund's rebalance, or a private owner looking to exit quietly — situations where the right relationship gets you in front of the asset before the auction.
• Owner-occupation is on the table. You're weighing whether to continue leasing or to buy. The answer depends on the building, the price, the lease alternative, and how capital is best deployed across the business.