South African landlords build water backup as supply failures hit commercial property
Written on
Commercial property owners are sinking boreholes, installing backup tanks and leak-detection systems as municipal water failures threaten tenant operations, independent property analyst Keillen Ndlovu tells Moneyweb.
Water has replaced electricity as the most pressing infrastructure risk for South Africa's commercial property owners, with listed landlords increasingly funding their own supply because municipal systems can no longer be relied on, independent property analyst Keillen Ndlovu told Moneyweb Now.
Ndlovu said the shift follows repeated, extended outages. He cited Attacq, whose portfolio at Waterfall City now carries more than five days of backup water across over 80 percent of its assets, using sectional steel tanks and pumps. Those 1.3 million-litre buffers cushioned tenants during the Johannesburg outage that cut supply to Simmonds Street and Waterfall City between January 25 and February 5.
Other landlords are taking different routes. Vukile now draws almost a quarter of its water from boreholes, Growthpoint has also invested in boreholes, Fortress has installed low-water toilets, and Hyprop is looking to build three to five days of backup water into its Western Cape portfolio. Fairvest, a rural and township retail landlord, now produces around 15 percent of its own water, while rainwater harvesting, grey-water reuse and water recycling are being added across the sector.
The cost sits with the property owner. Ndlovu said landlords pay for JoJo or Roto tanks, steel tanks and the pumps that move the water themselves, and receive no rebate from city councils even as rates and taxes rise. They are also investing in systems that detect leaks early, which reduces losses and improves the environmental performance of buildings.
The pressure is felt most where foot traffic and staff are concentrated — offices, shopping centres and government service points where business stops if bathrooms have to close. Logistics and storage assets are less exposed, partly because some tenants maintain their own backup water and power as part of their operations.
Ndlovu framed the investment as a lasting change rather than a passing response, drawing a parallel with the solar rollout that began as a reaction to grid failures and became a cheaper, greener way to run buildings. In a drought-prone country with ageing municipal infrastructure, he said, water resilience has become operationally important for landlords.