Waterfall is a recent, award winning commercial and residential development situated in the Midrand area at the Allandale Road exit of the N1 highway. It consists of Waterfall City, which is the CBD of the area, and boasts the largest single phase mall on the continent, known as the Mall of Africa. “The area has been designed to provide an ideal setting for those living and working there, with green building design, the inclusion of luxuriant vegetation in parks, indigenous green belts and the provision of running lanes for the health-conscious,” says Leon Breytenbach, National Manager of the Rawson Property Group’s commercial division. You will find a variety of restaurants, high-end retail outlets, a popular gym and a piazza at Waterfall Corner.
Waterfall City is surrounded by other commercial properties as well as a number of large, popular residential estates. It is within easy reach of the Johannesburg CBD via the N1, taking about 27 minutes of travel time. Pretoria is a few kilometres further, and takes about 30 minutes. Waterfall City has easy access to the two main airports, these being OR Tambo airport which is only 32 kilometres away and Lanseria airport, 33 kilometres away via the R552, which takes approximately 34 minutes of travel time. Midrand’s industrial area is in close proximity too, providing access to a vast choice of industrial entities thus ensuring the ideal situation of the estate for virtually any type of commercial enterprise.
New development
Gauteng tops the list with the most commercial property developments currently in the pipeline. Sandton lies in first place with a whopping 43.9% of the country’s total, while Waterfall lies in second place with 7.5% and Rosebank follows closely in third place with 7.1%. Waterfall already offers a large amount of rentable commercial property, and more will soon be available. “According to the SAPOA Office Vacancy report of October 2016, approved development not yet finalised for the commercial property market in Waterfall is recorded at 58 827 square metres,” Breytenbach explains, “although only 13 827 will be available for rental, the remainder has been pre-leased.” There are already many big companies established in Waterfall who have pre-leased premises soon to be completed, such as Servest, Massmart, Cipla, Honda, Cell C, Group Five, Premier Foods, Westcon, and Altech.
Available commercial space
The current rentable area in Waterfall amounts to just under 83 000 square metres, of which 30 339 square metres is prime grade and 52 435 square metres is A grade. No B or C grade premises exist in the area. There was only 4 500 square metres of A grade space available for leasing as at the date of the Q3 SAPOA report. The vacancy percentages have reduced significantly over the past year from 10.4% to 9.1%, and may rise again in the future when some of the anticipated new developments come onto the market. This should not prove to be a problem, given the rapid growth of Waterfall and the interest shown in available premises for rent.
Rawson Commercial has offices countrywide and we will gladly assist you with all your commercial needs. Contact (021) 658 7100
