Steering A Sector Through A Pandemic

Growthpoint’s CEO of South African operations, Estienne de Klerk, has been at the helm of the property industry’s response to Covid-19.

- Glenda Williams

As the largest South African primary real estate investment trust (Reit) listed on the JSE, Growthpoint Properties has always had an appreciation that the property industry would look to them to take the lead in industry matters.

But it’s unlikely that Estienne de Klerk, CEO of Growthpoint Properties South Africa, ever imagined he’d be navigating a wilting economy and global pandemic simultaneously … and steering SA’s property industry through the crisis.

“I don’t think anyone in their working careers, even those who’ve retired, have had to deal with something like this where, on top of a weak economy, government closes down the economy physically. It is the toughest thing anybody has ever had to deal with,” De Klerk said in an interview with finweek.

De Klerk has always been involved in industry-related matters. He was an original signatory to the Property Charter, is current chairman of the SA REIT Association (SAREIT) and is a past president of the SA Property Owners Association (SAPOA).

In rallying the troops, he brought together the country’s major real estate bodies SAREIT, SAPOA and the South African Council of Shopping Centres (SACSC) as the Property Industry Group to steer the industry through the Covid-19 lockdown. “We took an active decision as an industry to make sure we pay our staff, our suppliers and financiers. We’ve protected the municipalities, the banks and the debt capital market.”