HARARE – Zimbabwe Stock Exchange-listed real estate investment trust (REIT) Tigere Fund says it is well on course to reach a US$100 million property portfolio by next year, buoyed by the success of recent developments and an aggressive pipeline of upcoming projects.
According to newZWire, Tigere’s current portfolio includes flagship assets such as Highland Park and Chinamano Corner. The fund’s asset manager, Terrace Africa, led by Managing Director Brett Abrahamse, is now shifting gears to accelerate expansion.
“We said last year we would like to get to US$50 million NAV (net asset value) by 2025, and we are on track,” Abrahamse told newZWire. “We said we wanted to get to US$100 million in three years. But we’re expecting to get to that before the end of the next financial year.”
One of Tigere’s standout achievements is the Greenfields Shopping Complex at the Harare Showgrounds, which opened last year. Its strong performance has helped reshape perceptions about commercial viability in parts of the capital city previously overlooked by developers.
“It’s a fallacy that the money only sits in the North or East, the golden triangle, wherever that is,” said Abrahamse. “We’ve seen this through this asset and its performance.”
The centre currently hosts 15 restaurants and food outlets, with Bulawayo’s popular Smokehouse set to join this year. Tigere plans to incorporate Greenfields into the fund once full occupancy is reached. A second phase is scheduled to open in July, with a waiting list for tenants already in place.
Central to Tigere’s expansion plans is the Highland Park Precinct, a US$17.5 million mixed-use development taking shape across the road from the existing Highland Park.
Due for completion in 2026, the precinct will feature 12 showrooms, 3,500 square metres of office space, a penthouse office suite and rooftop restaurant, and will host a new international hotel brand. A footbridge will link the development to the current Highland Park complex. Plans also include an additional 12 to 15 buildings in the surrounding area.
Demand has been strong even before completion. “It is already 70% pre-let, and we are holding back a bit, because we believe that once it starts getting off the ground and taking shape, we’re going to get a lot of demand for rental space,” said Abrahamse.
Tigere is also stepping in to address infrastructure gaps that typically fall outside the remit of property developers. The company is widening a one-kilometre stretch of Emmerson Mnangagwa Road (Enterprise Road) to ease traffic congestion around Highland Park.
“This should be the responsibility of other departments outside Tigere, but we can’t wait,” Abrahamse said. “We want to get the benefits of the rental turnover now, and often that needs to be factored into these developments.”
Looking ahead, Tigere is planning projects in Ruwa, Kadoma, Bulawayo, and beyond. In Ruwa, the first phase of a new retail complex will begin this year, adjacent to the Puma service station near KFC. Additional developments are being lined up at the ZITF grounds in Bulawayo, while land has already been acquired along Nemakonde Way in Harare for another project.
“These projects will add more colour to Tigere’s portfolio,” Abrahamse noted. “We’ve been pretty boring to date, we’ve been talking about one or two assets, but we plan to really ramp that up in the next two financial years. By the end of 2026, we want to be talking about sectoral analysis, a breakdown of our assets across the country and maybe in the region.”
Source: newZWire
