The next time you need a GP, a scan and a minor procedure, the pitch is that you might get all three without leaving the building. Property group Growthpoint has opened a R100 million healthcare “village” in Rosebank, Johannesburg, and it is meant to be the first of many.
Built by Growthpoint Healthcare Property Holdings, the group’s healthcare-and-wellness property fund, the development was created with healthcare provider Epione and brings general practitioners, specialists, diagnostics, a pharmacy and day surgery together in one place. It is the first of a planned network of integrated health villages the partners intend to roll out across South Africa and, eventually, elsewhere on the continent.
What’s inside
The two-storey building is purpose-built for the idea. It houses 22 consulting rooms for GPs and specialists, plus a pharmacy, a pathology laboratory and a 20-bed day hospital fitted with two operating theatres for same-day procedures. Daily Investor reports the ground floor also carries a concierge desk and a primary-healthcare corridor with room for eight GPs alongside dental and optometry practices, and that the site includes a skin-cancer centre of excellence staffed by dermatologists and specialist surgeons.
The logic is to stop patients bouncing between separate providers for a consultation, a scan and treatment. “We are proud to be the healthcare property partner and developer that helped bring this vision to life,” said fund manager Farhana Russell, describing it as exactly the kind of asset the fund exists to create by providing capital and know-how.
A bet on medical property
For Growthpoint, the village is a small slice of a much bigger portfolio. It adds to the fund’s R8 billion healthcare property holdings, which stretch across hospitals, medical suites, pharmaceutical manufacturing and warehousing, and senior-living communities. The investment comes as healthcare property keeps drawing institutional investors chasing steady, income-producing assets, helped along by an ageing population, rising health spending and a shift towards outpatient care.
Epione founder Garikai Govati, who chose Growthpoint as his partner about eight years ago, says the appetite for more is already there. “We plan to offer more of these spaces across Africa,” he said — which, if the model works, could turn one Rosebank building into a template.
