Dipula Properties (JSE: DIB) delivered robust FY2025 growth, driven by strategic acquisitions, expanding solar investments and strong second-half momentum.
Source: Supplied. Izak Petersen, chief executive officer of Dipula Properties.
The award-winning REIT, boasting a 57% CAGR, reported a 5% rise in distributable earnings and 57.26 cents per share.
Izak Petersen, chief executive officer of Dipula Properties, highlights that Dipula’s results reflect prudent capital allocation backed by rigorous asset management, financial and operational discipline, and the reignition of acquisitive growth.
“As a proud South African business, Dipula draws strength from the remarkable resilience of our people, who possess a distinctive talent for spotting opportunities, unlocking value and turning challenges into success, even in a tough operating environment.
"The Dipula team has done well to deliver strong performance with a positive set of results that further reinforce our firm foundation for future growth,” comments Petersen.
Dipula remains optimistic about its prospects, supported by a real-estate sector in early recovery, fuelled by easing inflation, lower interest rates, some improvement to national political and policy stability, and a more stable electricity grid. Dipula is expecting continued growth in distributable earnings of 7% for its 2026 financial year.
Broad sector footprint
Dipula Properties (formerly Dipula Income Fund) is a prominent, diversified South Africa-focused REIT that has been delivering sustainable investment returns, generating long-term value for stakeholders for 20-years, with nearly 15 of those as a listed entity.
The company generates 67% of its income from retail properties defensively positioned with retail centres in townships, rural, and urban convenience locations.
It also has a core portfolio of logistics and industrial assets (13% of income), office assets (16%), and a small non-core residential property portfolio (4%). Dipula is invested across South Africa, but its portfolio is predominantly in Gauteng.
Supported by improved property fundamentals and Dipula’s proactive asset management, the property portfolio increased in like-for-like value by 6% to R10.8bn, and 10% for retail, buoyed by higher income prospects and supporting a 7.5% rise in net asset value. Dipula’s revenue, excluding straight-lining, increased 4% to R1.517bn. Net property income rose 3.0%.
Cost control continues to be a management priority, and the total cost-to-income ratio of 43.2% (FY24: 42.6%) reflected a marginal increase due to inflation-driven property-expense increases and the effect of lower office-rental renewals achieved the previous year.
Demonstrating continued cost discipline at corporate level, the administrative cost-to-income remained stable at below 4%.
Operational highlights included significant leasing activity, with retail portfolio vacancies reducing to 5%, even though total portfolio vacancies edged up slightly from 7.5% to 8.5% during the year, mainly due to short-term dynamics in highly lettable properties in the office and industrial portfolios.
Dipula achieved a weighted average positive renewal rental rate across the portfolio of 0.6%, a significant improvement over the -9.7% for FY24. New and renewed leases concluded during the period amounted to R801m, securing sustainable income streams.
Strategic capital recycling
Discussions are currently in advance stages for Dipula’s clearly telegraphed intention to sell its affordable and conveniently located residential rental units, which currently represent 4% of income and showed reduced vacancies from 12% to 6% during the year.
The planned disposal will see Dipula re-allocate capital to the retail and industrial sectors that are core to its business.
Driving its active capital recycling, Dipula disposed of R200m of non-core properties during the year, substantially higher than R37m of the prior financial year.
Proceeds contributed to repaying debt and funding value-enhancing asset management strategies, quality-improving acquisitions and sustainability initiatives.
Dipula invested R214m in refurbishments and redevelopments designed to drive income growth, which is a 37% increase over the prior year. A further R170m is planned for the 2026 financial year, enhancing already successful core assets.
Returning to acquisitive growth this year, Dipula finalised five strategic acquisition agreements in August 2025 totalling approximately R700m, at a total average weighted yield of 10%.
The largest of these was the R480m purchase of Protea Gardens Mall in Soweto, a 24,000m² community shopping centre. This asset is an excellent strategic fit for Dipula’s strategy, offering embedded growth and value-creation potential, supported by a strong tenant base with over 70% national retailers and a growing consumer market.
High-quality expansion
Together with two additional acquisitions to deepen the company’s footprint in key, proven markets, these retail investments underscore Dipula’s commitment to community upliftment by providing accessible, everyday shopping experiences.
In line with Dipula’s capital-allocation strategy focused on high-quality mid-sized logistics and industrial assets, a core component of its growth plan, Dipula also secured two industrial properties with strong tenant profiles. It agreed to acquire a newly developed, state-of-the-art distribution centre of over 16,000m² in Klerksdorp, leased long-term to blue-chip multinational Bayer.
Plumari Property Group
1 dayAdditionally, Airborne Industrial Park, a fully let multi-tenant complex of 6,964m² located near OR Tambo International Airport, transferred ownership in August 2025.
The transactions are also being funded, in part, by Dipula’s oversubscribed September 2025 equity raise of R550m.
Solar-driven progress
Dipula integrates ESG principles into every aspect of its operations, driving transparency, reducing environmental impact, and fostering community and social value through sustainable investments and stakeholder engagement.
Key initiatives this year included expanding rooftop solar capacity, enhancing energy efficiency, waste and water management, and supporting employee development and community projects.
The REIT invested R54m in solar PV installations during the year, bringing its installed solar capacity to approximately 6MWp. An additional 10MWp of new solar projects are slated for completion in the first quarter of 2026.
While there’s still progress to be made, the results show that Dipula has started its sustainability journey in earnest. Emissions avoidance increased by 240% compared to the previous year. Meanwhile, the share of green energy consumed in its portfolio more than doubled, rising from 2% to 5%.
“Dipula’s capital allocation will see us staying true to our strategy by growing and enhancing the quality of properties in our retail portfolio, increasing exposure to logistics and industrial properties, and advancing our sustainability programmes.
"We are actively evaluating a strategic pipeline of promising growth opportunities within this core focus,” says Petersen.
Robust balance sheet
Dipula benefits from a strong balance sheet and has maintained prudent debt levels. Gearing reduced to 34.9% compared to 35.7%, and a steady ICR of 2.8 times at year end reflects a consistently well-managed balance sheet. Post year-end gearing had reduced to 29%.
Late last week (5 November 2025), Dipula was named the number one company in the prestigious Sunday Times Top 100 Companies Awards, purely on merit assessed through rigorous financial-performance criteria that identify those companies earning the most for shareholders.
Eligible companies must be JSE-listed with minimum market capitalisation of R5bn as at 31 August 2025, trade at least R20m in volume, and have at least five years of trading history.
Rankings are determined by the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of a hypothetical R10,000 initial investment at the closing share price on 31 August 2020, held for five years to 31 August 2025.
Dipula proudly achieved a compound annual growth rate of 57%, delivering a total return of 854%. This means R10,000 invested in Dipula in September 2020 was worth R95,424 as at 31 August 2025.
Looking ahead, Petersen notes the South African real-estate sector has seen meaningful improvement recently with more to come, and this could accelerate should there be improvements to the persistent local-government inefficiencies that are posing material risks and structural constraints to sector growth.
“We remain optimistic about South Africa and the property sector’s outlook, while being realistic about the challenges we face.
"Dipula will continue focusing on growing our presence in defensive retail and industrial assets through strategic capital allocation, disciplined operations and active hands-on management,” says Petersen.
