Broll property groups africa success

Broll Property Group, recently voted the Best Real Estate Services Company in Africa by Euromoney, continues to experience extraordinary growth both in South Africa and across the African continent.

This growth results from significant and focussed investments over the last 10 years, in a world-class property services platform across Sub-Saharan Africa, explains Group CEO, Malcolm Horne.

“Overall growth over the last 12 months has resulted in the Group increasing gross lettable area (GLA) under its management to a staggering 20 million square metres. “The underlying value of third party assets under management now exceed R125 billion.”

Horne points out that this growth has spawned the creation of numerous job opportunities resulting in the Group virtually increasing its workforce to 1,329 people within the last 24 month cycle.

Since 1975, Broll has continued to grow exponentially while building sound reputation, symbiotic alliances, partnerships and relationships in the real estate sector across Sub-Saharan Africa.

“In addition to the extensive geographical growth, the Group has increased the service lines offered to our clients way beyond traditional property management services. Broll has also anchored its Sub-Saharan African affiliation with CBRE, the world’s largest provider of real estate services.”

According to Horne, Broll’s Corporate Real Estate Services (CRES) division has been at the forefront of this tremendous growth.

Recent CRES successes include securing a financial services client contract (comprising of 420 sites across Sub-Saharan Africa) as well as procuring a leading global oil company contract (consisting of 400 properties in South Africa valued in excess of R3 billion).

CRES alone now manages 2,240,000m2 of GLA valued at R28 billion.

Broll Facilities Management (FM) division, in close pursuit of CRES, now has R25 billion of assets under its control. The increased demand for this value-added service through controlled expenditure and improved service deliver has resulted in FM recently being awarded the prestigious parliamentary portfolio in Cape Town and the MTN portfolio.

Furthermore, Broll’s core property management division’s assets under management currently exceed R48 billion. The fact that Broll manages 291 shopping centres across Sub-Saharan Africa, including the 7 largest shopping malls outside South Africa, is testimony to its expertise in this field.

“There are approximately 53 new retail projects in Africa under construction currently - 28% of these are in East Africa, 44% in the SADC region and 28% in West Africa.”

Although challenging, the hard work put into expanding the Africa business has resulted in Broll securing the mandate for leasing of over 1 million square metres of retail projects (in various stages of completion) in these regions over the next 24 months, points out Horne.

Horne, appointed as Group CEO in 2010, ascribes the success and phenomenal growth of the Broll Property Group to a number of factors, most notably, the entrepreneurial vision of its shareholders and the great team of passionate people who have the ability to seize opportunities as they arise.

“I am thankful and grateful to all of those clients who support the Broll business.

“What keeps us on our toes is understanding the pressures of delivering beyond our clients’ expectations.”

Horne adds that the Group’s business is not about individuals or personal achievements, but it is about individuals working together as a team in order to achieve their full potential while recognising and respecting other team members.