How the office sector rebound is shaping intelligent workspaces

Source: Supplied. Scott Thorburn is the national asset manager; Office at Redefine Properties.

According to the Rode Report for Q4 2025, published by Galetti Corporate Real Estate, the national decentralised office vacancy rate improved from 12.5% to 11.7% year-on-year, while Grade-A office rentals rose by 3.5%.

The improving market conditions are also driving greater investment in intelligent, sustainable and tenant-focused workspace upgrades.

To this end, the report identifies a trend where office tenants are prioritising well-located, high-quality buildings in strong nodes, while stable capitalisation rates across the entire commercial-property sector signal improving investor sentiment.

This market recovery is also evident in Redefine’s office portfolio, where the vacancy rate has dipped to 11.1%. This shift offers a clear signal of stabilisation for a sector that has faced significant structural pressure.

Sector recovery is an uneven process, but consistency is how we cement it. By committing meaningful capital to select new developments and existing property refurbishments, Redefine is leveraging the upwards momentum in the office-property sector to our advantage.

Part of that commitment involves reinventing the traditional office property, ensuring it not only meets the unique needs of its tenants, but also offers features and amenities that enhance its overall value offering.

This is further supported by strong tenant fundamentals across our portfolio, with tenant retention exceeding 96%, reflecting sustained demand for well-located, quality office space despite broader market pressures.

The age of the intelligent workspace

Like any business, survival requires adaptation. The emergence of remote and hybrid work models in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis, combined with other longstanding variables such as climate change, has prompted property owners and managers to take a hard look at their assets and determine ways to make them competitive, desirable and able to meet tenants’ unique needs.

Easily, the most visible way they have done so is through technology. Redefine has and continues to invest in platforms that centralise and digitalise physical property-management functions into intelligent systems and seamless user experiences. The result is not just a smart building, an intelligent workspace for office tenants, but one that’s capable of gathering data and offering insights that help managers better understand their assets and improve efficiencies.

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For Redefine, these efforts take the form of the GoCity super app, developed in partnership with Think Digital. Some of GoCity’s key capabilities include tracking tenant parking allocation versus actual use, monitoring time and attendance levels via controlled property access, and evacuation support in the event of an emergency.

GoCity also forms part of Redefine’s broader digital transformation strategy that prioritises maximum convenience and efficiency for tenants and stakeholders, culminating in technology playing a critical role for Redefine’s office portfolio going forward.

Sustainability, one installation at a time

A smart building is also a green building. And so, property owners and managers are expected to measure and manage their properties’ operational carbon emissions. New developments now include renewable energy, energy-saving technologies and amenities as a base requirement.

And the returns of that investment speak for themselves. According to research, including insights from the MSCI Global Green Building Index, Green Star-certified buildings tend to deliver stronger total returns and lower occupancy costs than non-certified assets.

Across Redefine’s office assets, sustainability upgrades continue to be rolled out, including expanded solar PV capacity, water-efficient infrastructure and HVAC optimisation, contributing to improved operational efficiency and long-term asset resilience.

Integrated sustainability in office properties takes the form of energy-efficient systems, water-smart infrastructure, and overall reduced operational carbon intensity. These measures include maximising solar PV installations on available roof space, onsite battery storage, water-efficient toilets, electronic taps, efficient HVAC and other equipment, waste-stream audits and on-site sourcing, recycling and internal waste-management initiatives. These installations are also collaborative in their nature, meaning that tenants and other property stakeholders are partners in ensuring they have a tangible impact.

All of this contributes to achieving broad net-zero goals and enables REITs like Redefine to manage spaces that let us embrace an eco-conscious future.

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Creating a space with purpose

Motivated by the office-sector turnaround, Redefine is seizing the opportunity to upgrade and modernise its office assets. We are strategically investing in upgrades in key regions such as Gauteng. Examples include Commerce Square in Sandhurst and Hertford Office Park in Midrand and Loftus Park in Arcadia. With each space we transform and bring to market, we align ourselves with what tenants need, expect and deserve.

This active portfolio repositioning is supported by a disciplined investment approach, contributing to overall group operational strength, with net operating profit margin improving to 77.2%, reflecting enhanced efficiency across asset classes.

At the end of the day, any upgrade initiative is about cultivating and refining the appeal of office spaces and delivering a seamless and convenient experience to the end user. South Africans who commute to work every day, take meetings in boardrooms and work at their desks deserve a calm, secure and welcoming environment to be comfortable and productive.

The space needs to embody a purpose. By investing in property upgrades, tenant-centred development and proptech, while leveraging improving market conditions, we are redefining the standard for modern office assets.