South Africa's retail property market is giving tenants more room to negotiate.
South Africa's retail property market is giving tenants more room to negotiate as landlords contend with a challenging environment for new development and occupancy.
This is according to Samuel Theu, national property manager at Atlas Finance, who has worked on both sides of the landlord-tenant divide. He businesses that understand what property owners need can use the current market to secure better deals.
"The spaces many businesses are avoiding today are often where the biggest opportunities lie," said Theu. "If you understand how landlords think and what they need from a quality tenant, you approach negotiations very differently."
The broader property market remains under pressure. Statistics South Africa's latest building statistics show that the real value of buildings reported as completed fell 7.2% in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier. Non-residential buildings accounted for much of the decline, falling 26.4% in real terms.
