HARARE – Old Mutual, one of Zimbabwe’s largest property investors, is shifting its real estate strategy to align with new economic realities, moving away from overreliance on shopping malls and into sectors it believes hold more promise—tourism, mining, and healthcare.
For years, according to the NewZwire, the company’s vast property portfolio has included major retail centres such as Westgate, Highglen, Chitungwiza Centre, and Nkulumane Shopping Centre. But with formal retail slowing and consumer spending under pressure, Old Mutual is now rethinking where real estate value lies.
Managing Director of Old Mutual Investment Group, Marjorie Majiya, said the company is deliberately repositioning itself to tap into the momentum building in other sectors. She pointed to recent movements in tourism, mining, and the potential within healthcare as areas Old Mutual is now watching closely, citing them as emerging “growth nodes” in the Zimbabwean economy. The goal, she said, is to align with sectors that are not just growing, but resilient and increasingly central to national development.
This strategic pivot comes at a time when the company is managing occupancy levels of around 78 percent, down slightly from the previous year. Old Mutual attributes this to its decision to remove non-performing tenants in order to improve the overall quality and stability of its property base. Despite these pressures, its investment property remains strong, valued at over US$460 million.
Over recent years, the company has begun expanding its property footprint in line with these ambitions. It has committed capital into industrial developments tied to the mining sector, taken part in real estate projects aimed at easing accommodation challenges for students, and entered the residential housing market through strategic partnerships. In tourism, it has backed high-end hospitality projects, including an investment in the Palm River Hotel in Victoria Falls, one of Zimbabwe’s premier tourist destinations.
Old Mutual’s shift mirrors a wider trend in the market, as investors increasingly recognise the limitations of relying solely on traditional commercial retail. Firms like Mashonaland Holdings have also identified tourism infrastructure as a gap worth filling, particularly as the country’s hotel stock ages and new players eye the sector. South African real estate firm Chas Everitt, newly operating in Zimbabwe, has also identified Victoria Falls as a hotspot for hotel development, with significant capital already earmarked for luxury projects.
What Old Mutual is signalling through its evolving portfolio is a calculated departure from business-as-usual. It’s a move that speaks not just to economic adaptation, but to a broader vision of property investment—one that seeks out growth where it is happening, rather than where it used to be.
