Calgro M3, a JSE-listed builder of affordable housing, also runs private cemeteries it calls Memorial Parks. In the six months to August, that business grew revenue 20% to R47.8 million, at a gross margin (what's left after direct costs) of 54.8%. Its housing earns about 26.6%.

The model is simple. Calgro develops a park once, then sells burial rights grave by grave. Families can pay in instalments before they need one, and those maturing lay-by sales made up 26.2% of the segment's revenue. Grave sales rose 16%, and cash collections topped R60 million.

It has about 113,000 graves left to sell across six parks, including Nasrec, Fourways and a new park in Rustenburg. It’s still small: about 10% of group revenue, but you can see it’s a play in the making.

The Play:

For the metros you know, list every cemetery, one line each: public or private, how full it is, and the price per grave where it's published. Add land zoned or approved for cemeteries, and death registrations by area. Update it every year. Where public cemeteries are filling up and private parks are few, land that suits a cemetery is worth more than it looks.

In the UK, landlords are leasing empty warehouses to padel operators, says property consultancy Vail Williams, which calls padel "a commercial occupier requirement". Operators want high ceilings, big open floors and parking. In Christchurch, Dorset, for example, one operator signed a 10-year lease on a 15,418 sq ft warehouse (about 1,430m²). In the US, pickleball clubs have moved into former big-box stores.

There is a catch. The Picklr, one of the biggest US indoor pickleball franchises, filed for bankruptcy on 10 October after guaranteeing leases for about 40 franchise sites. Its CEO said it signed "too many corporate guarantees" and will now renegotiate with landlords. Vail Williams tells landlords to check each operator's business model before signing.

South Africa already has the players: a national directory listed 553 padel courts at 202 venues in May 2026. And the sport is growing fast, so the question is whether there’s a similar courts pay here. Some have started adding courts to malls and co-working spaces.

The Play:

For your empty big-box and older warehouse space, list ceiling height, column spacing, floor area and parking bays. Beside it, list the padel operators near you: courts, peak-time bookings and years trading. Check every quarter. A tall, open, empty box near operators who are full at peak could be your next tenant. Favour the operator with a trading record over the one growing fastest.

The SA Human Rights Commission has asked the Western Cape High Court to stop the City of Cape Town transferring 49 properties it sold at auction in February, while the court reviews the decision to sell. They include 28 residential-zoned sites in areas such as Mitchells Plain, Goodwood and Durbanville, plus commercial and industrial land in Atlantis, Delft and Parow.

The Commission says the City did not properly consider the land for affordable housing, and that "public land is a finite resource". The City says it will "vigorously oppose" the application. Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis says it came about six months after the City answered the Commission's questions, and years after public participation on many of the sites.

The February auction turned over about R125 million, the auctioneer's record shows. No court order has been made yet.

The Play:

For every municipal auction you bid on, keep one list, a line per site: the date of final council approval, the transfer date, and any objection or court case filed. Keep a running count of days from auction to transfer. If transfers in a city keep running past the auction terms, price that delay into your next bid.

Menlyn Park's owner is turning its office park into 1,200 rental homes. Pareto, which owns Menlyn Park Shopping Centre, and Divercity are converting Menlyn Office Park next door into 1,200 rentals for R850 million, owned 50/50. About 550 come from the old office blocks and 650 are new builds. The first phase is due mid-2027. No rents are published yet.

Leratong City opened after 18 years in the making. The 36,500m² mall in Mogale City, anchored by Shoprite, Pick n Pay and Boxer, is the first phase of a R5 billion node, with 15,000 homes, a private hospital and a motor city planned. Developer McCormick opened another mall in Limpopo the next day.

A R2.5bn tower is going up on a 1,680m² site next to the CTICC. Indalo Hotels and Leisure Group's ThirtyFour18 will hold a five-star hotel, 101 apartments, P-grade offices and restaurants on Cape Town's Foreshore. That is about R1.5 million of building for every square metre of land (our arithmetic).

Joburg owners have until 30 November to object to new valuations. The City's fourth supplementary valuation roll lists properties whose value or category has changed, and that value sets the rates bill. Each objection must be about a specific property. They close at 15:00 on 30 November, and late ones won't be accepted.

UBS is winding up a €270m (R5.1bn) property fund it couldn't pay out. After two years of investors asking for their money back, UBS will liquidate its Swiss-listed European property fund. It says buildings can only be sold selectively, often at big discounts, and paying everyone out could take years.

A mining group has a tailings dam, where mine waste is stored, spread over more than 400 hectares. Checking it meant people walking the site with handheld instruments, and each full round took about 30 days.

Now sensors feed a live dashboard around the clock, with alerts the moment a reading moves. Manual effort is down more than 90%, and the people who used to walk the dam do other work.

It matters because a missed warning is expensive: environmental fines of up to R10 million, and penalties of up to R2 million a day.

If you own land you can't walk every day, the same logic applies.

Built. A newsletter by The Awareness Company.