UN-PRI Awards shortlist Divercity’s Jewel City in Johannesburg

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4 October 2022

Divercity is honoured that the United Nations Principles of Responsible Investment (UN-PRI) have recognised Jewel City Precinct in central Johannesburg, South Africa, as one of the five most impactful “real world impact” projects globally in 2021.

As one of the five highest-scoring qualifying entries in the awards’ other four categories, Jewel City has also been shortlisted for the UN-PRI “emerging markets initiative of the year” award.

Jewel City is the only project from the African continent to be shortlisted for this year’s UN-PRI Awards. The winner of each UN-PRI Awards category will be announced on 1 December 2022 in Barcelona, Spain.

This news comes hot on the heels of Jewel City being named the winner of two prestigious South African Property Owners Association (SAPOA) 2022 Property Development Awards for Innovate Excellence: Best Residential Development and the overall Transformation (impact) Award.

“These honours are significant because they are independent third-party validation of our thesis that developing affordable, desirable residential precincts in amenity-rich central locations is a powerful means of positive impact that delivers solid commercial returns,” says Carel Kleynhans, CEO of Divercity, South Africa’s leading investor in well-located affordable housing precincts.

The awards underscore Divercity’s ESG and impact ethos, which is at its core. They confirm Divercity as a leader in well-located housing precincts, which are successful commercially, socially and environmentally. Divercity will continue building a portfolio of the most affordable in-class residential rental assets in well-located precincts with supporting amenities, enabling people to thrive where they live.

Jewel City shines

The success that Jewel City is enjoying on the ground is extremely exciting.

Jewel City is a thriving, modern neighbourhood that has become the heart of Johannesburg and is reviving inner-city living. It spans six city blocks of unmatched urban amenities where Divercity has invested substantially in essential amenities such as childcare, education, healthcare, sport facilities, public recreational spaces, and daily retail.

Since launching two years ago, it has gone from strength to strength – Jewel City’s residential apartments are fully let, and its retail is trading strongly. Jewel City retail outperforms comparative centres in all trading categories and continues to report double-digit turnover growth annually. Its national brand tenants, such as Checkers, Clicks and Pep, outclass their namesakes in similar retail settings.

These achievements clearly indicate the insatiable demand for well-located, affordable residential accommodation in great precincts.

About the UN-PRI Award ‘real world impact’

The UN-PRI ‘real world impact’ award is given to a signatory who has sought to align its investments with global goals across its portfolio or for given asset classes or an investment product, with an approach that is an example of investing with UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or more broadly investing for sustainability impact. It explicitly seeks approaches with broader applications than traditional impact investing.

Global goals are set through international agreements and frameworks, national implementation, or societal expectations, including the UN SDG goals and targets, The Paris Agreement, UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and other environmental, social, governance, and development objectives established by political or socio-economic institutions.

About the SAPOA Property Development Awards for Innovative Excellence

These awards are the most prestigious programme of its kind within the South African commercial real estate industry. They honour outstanding contributions to South Africa’s built environment and celebrate developments with positive impacts on our cities and towns.

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By 2030, the UN’s goal is to ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services.

Our impact

Over the next five 5 years, Divercity expects to construct more than 10,000 new and green affordable residential units in centrally-located neighbourhoods, expanding housing options close to economic opportunity for low- and middle-income households. Construction of the new residential units will help address the growing housing deficit and issues of spatial segregation in South Africa.

By 2030, the UN’s goal is to develop reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure to support economic development and human well-being, with a focus on affordable and equitable access for all

Our impact

Divercity is providing housing in locations that are connected to existing infrastructure, such as healthcare, schools, jobs and parks. This serves to reinforce accessible and equitable cities, as well as strives to break the destructive pattern of South Africa’s apartheid infrastructure and planning.

By 2030, the UN’s goal is to strengthen the resilience and adaptive capacity to climate related disasters

Our impact

More compact cities – enabled through the kind of development that Diversity advances – are associated with substantially lower greenhouse gas emissions, better land-use, and energy and resource efficiency, based on research 1 we’ve done with the Green Building Council South Africa (GBSCA) and Arup. Divercity has a commitment to minimising greenhouse gas emissions and is already supporting climate change mitigation through a range of measures, such as rooftop solar arrays, energy and water efficient design in all of our buildings and EDGE rating of all new developments.

By 2030, the UN’s goal is to ensure equitable and quality to pre-primary, primary and secondary education and lifelong learning

Our impact

Through our Ithemba Upliftment Foundation, we are contributing to early childhood development, enabling hundreds of young children to receive quality education at Daycare Centres in our precnits. This is in addition to the widened access to formal education facilities that are part of our developments, and our efforts in supporting lifelong learning through supporting adult education.

By 2030, the UN’s goal is to ensure universal access to affordable, reliable, renewable and modern energy sources

Our impact

As the cost of renewable energy generation capacity becomes more accessible and affordable, we are integrating these technologies more broadly across our residential portfolio. Divercity is focussed on eco-responsible housing as a viable means to contribute to sustainable and environmentally friendly urban development – through rigorous adherence to green building standards, including the use of energy efficient LED lights, rooftop solar arrays, energy efficient hot water generation and energy efficient building design.

By 2030, the UN’s goal is to encourage and promote effective public, private and civil society partnerships to attain the global goals

Our impact

Our partnerships empower us to champion progressive policy that supports sustainable development. One impactful example of such a partnership is our work with Green Building Council South Africa (GBSCA) and Arup, the global multi-disciplinary firm, on a research project on the enormous environmental and economic costs of the current dynamic of urban sprawl in Johannesburg. Through this project, we developed actionable recommendations for policymakers, investors and other stakeholder groups.
You can read more about the research project, titled: Does location matter? here.