ZIMRE Property Investment has unveiled plans to develop a state-of-the-art office park along Borrowdale Road at an estimated cost of over US$13 million. Speaking in an interview, ZPI finance director, Mr Nyasha Zhou said the development of the land which was acquired at the end of last year now awaits approval from the various board structures.
“We managed to secure a piece of land (2 hectares) at the end of last year along Borrowdale Road that we hope will address part of the challenges in our portfolio mix. We were looking at areas outside the Central Business District for a development that will culminate into an office park at some stage.
“According to preliminary investigations, outside the cost of the land, the kind of development that we are looking at is in the regions of US$13,2 million. This is a rough estimate which is subject to various considerations and possibly changes as it gets through the approval process. The intention is to take the project forward as it will be approved by various structures. This is a long term development,” he said.
Mr Zhou said the property firm is mulling extending its flagship ZIMRE Park residential development.
“As part of our drive to acquire strategic land banks, we have managed to secure a portion of land in ZIMRE Park. We want to explore opportunities of extending ZIMRE Park. However the project it is still under consideration by the relevant authorities, we are currently working at getting the necessary permits,” he said.
Mr Zhou said ZPI has also struck a pact with the Harare City Council that could see the parties mutually benefiting from the relationship.
“We are also targeting strategic land banks that we think would be of significant value to our portfolio, there are initiatives that we are pursuing with Harare City Council which are however at discussion stage at the moment, we think we will be able to benefit from some synergistic relationship with the council over a particular asset,” he said.
Mr Zhou said due to the flat rental market, it had become necessary to diversify away from the traditional rental income which is the greatest contributor to the company’s revenues and maintain a project pipeline that will be able to generate alternate income.
Shedding light on the projects that the firm is currently undertaking, Mr Zhou said the Tynwald project is selling well with an additional 50 stands being put up for sale towards the end of last year.
As a selling strategy, ZPI decided to sell the project in batches. The first batch of 150 stands was sold out last year. The last batch of 88 stands will be released once the current lot is sold out.
However, sales for the Rhodene, Masvingo project, slowed down significantly towards the end of last year.
“The slowdown in sales for Rhodene project can be attributed to two factors, the first being the liquidity crisis that has been blinding this economy for several years and tended to be more biting towards the end of last year. Sales have also slowed down because the stands that are currently on the market are bigger, therefore the take-up turns to be a little slower as the asking price is more demanding compared to the time when we were selling 1 000m2 stands,” he said. — FinX.