Vacancies in SA Corporate's flats did not budge in six months, sitting at 3.6% of units at the end of June, exactly where they were in December. For a residential landlord that is the number that matters most, and it is not the one the group led with. SA Corporate, the JSE's largest listed residential rental owner, lifted its interim dividend 7% to 13.92 cents a share for the half to June and kept paying out 92.5% of earnings, helped by the apartments it has been selling rather than letting.
The flats it sells and the flats it lets
Afhco, the group's residential arm, does two jobs at once: it manages the buildings and it sells apartments out of them, moving non-core units into the retail market above cost. Property disposals transferred, contracted or still to transfer over the six months came to R1.73 billion. Residential property now accounts for about 49% of the South African portfolio, after the group bought The Parks Lifestyle Apartments in December 2025.
What the rest of the portfolio earned
Rent and the buildings behind it still do most of the work, across 239 properties worth R18.6 billion. Like-for-like net property income, which is what the portfolio earns after costs once the buying and selling is stripped out, rose 5.5% to R655.1 million. Revenue reached R1.51 billion.
The earnings measures moved further than that. Headline earnings per share, the cleaned-up profit figure South African companies have to report, went from 13.33 cents to 18.32 cents, and distributable income, the measure a property trust uses for the earnings that pay the dividend, came to 15.05 cents a share.
The group's own account of the half gives credit at home and blame abroad. It put steadier trading and lower costs down to Eskom going more than 400 consecutive days without load shedding, and said the Middle East conflict and disruption at the Strait of Hormuz pushed up oil prices and leaned on the rand and bond yields. Its Zambian portfolio, built around the Arcades Shopping Mall, lifted net property income 12.6% in dollar terms on higher occupancy and better trading.
Shareholders who hold the share past 13 October get the 13.92 cents on 19 October. The group expects portfolio vacancy to come down over the rest of the year, and has a revamp at Town Square pencilled in for 2027.
