The United Nations Principles of Responsible Investment (UN-PRI) have recognised Divercity Urban Property Group’s Jewel City Precinct in central Johannesburg, South Africa, as one of the five most impactful “real world impact” projects globally in 2021.
Jewel City has also been shortlisted for the UN-PRI “emerging markets initiative of the year” award as one of the five highest-scoring qualifying entries in the awards’ other four categories. Divercity’s Jewel City is the only project from the African continent to be shortlisted for this year’s UN-PRI Awards.
This announcement comes days after Jewel City was named the winner of two prestigious South African Property Owners Association (SAPOA) 2022 Property Development Awards for Innovate Excellence: Best Residential Development and the overall Transformation (impact) Award.
“We are delighted that Jewel City has received such esteemed recognition. These honours are significant because they are independent third-party validation of our thesis that developing affordable, desirable residential precincts in amenity-rich central locations is a powerful means of positive impact that delivers solid commercial returns,” says Carel Kleynhans, CEO of Divercity, South Africa’s leading investor in well-located affordable housing precincts.
Jewel City is a thriving, modern neighbourhood that has become the heart of Johannesburg and is reviving inner-city living. It spans six city blocks of unmatched urban amenities where Divercity has invested substantially in essential amenities such as childcare, education, healthcare, sport facilities, public recreational spaces, and daily retail.
The UN-PRI ‘real world impact’ award is given to a signatory who has sought to align its investments with global goals across its portfolio or for given asset classes or an investment product, with an approach that is an example of investing with UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or more broadly investing for sustainability impact. It explicitly seeks approaches with broader applications than traditional impact investing.
Global goals are set through international agreements and frameworks, national implementation, or societal expectations, including the UN SDG goals and targets, The Paris Agreement, UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and other environmental, social, governance, and development objectives established by political or socio-economic institutions.
The winner of each UN-PRI Awards category will be announced on 1 December 2022 in Barcelona, Spain.
The SAPOA Property Development Awards for Innovate Excellence is the most prestigious programme of its kind within the South African commercial real estate industry. They honour outstanding contributions to South Africa’s built environment and celebrate developments with positive impacts on our cities and towns.
This is the second year Divercity’s assets have excelled at SAPOA’s awards. Last year, Towers Main, its landmark inner-Joburg mixed-use redevelopment, also won the overall Transformation (impact) Award and Best Mixed-Use Development.
The Jewel City precinct has also been honoured by the Gauteng Institute for Architecture (GIfA) with the 2021 GIfA Award of Merit for new residential development.
“Over and above these accolades, we are incredibly excited about the success that Jewel City is enjoying on the ground. Since launching two years ago, it has gone from strength to strength – Jewel City’s residential apartments are fully let, and its retail is trading strongly. These are clear indicators of the insatiable demand for well-located, affordable residential accommodation in great precincts,” notes Kleynhans.
Jewel City retail outperforms comparative centres in all trading categories and continues to report double-digit turnover growth annually. Its national brand tenants, such as Checkers, Clicks and Pep, outclass their namesakes in similar retail settings.
Divercity develops, owns and manages affordable rental housing in well-located urban precincts with scale, which enables it to deliver market-beating returns for investors while making an outsized positive social and environmental contribution. It has a R3bn property portfolio. Its residential property portfolio comprises 6,500-plus affordable rental apartments with complimentary office, retail, and educational space. Its properties are within the urban cores of major metropolitan areas in SA.
Divercity is backed by some of South Africa’s leading names in property, with its founding partners including Atterbury Property, Ithemba Property, JSE-listed RMB Holdings (RMBH) and Nedbank Property Partners. It has raised further investments from British development finance institution, British International Investment (formerly the CDC Group), and leading local impact investor Futuregrowth.
“We couldn’t be more proud that these awards underscore our ESG and impact ethos, which is core to our business. They confirm Divercity as a leader in well-located housing precincts, which are successful commercially, socially and environmentally. We are inspired to continue building a portfolio of the most affordable in-class residential rental assets in well-located precincts with supporting amenities, enabling people to thrive where they live,” concludes Kleynhans.
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