White Paper: Learning from Westown – Unlocking Land and Investment through Leasehold Development

Warren Brusse
Sep 5, 2024
3 min read

Updated: Jul 10

By Warren Brusse, Chief Executive Officer, Zebinvest Real Estate Development

1. Foreword

At Zebinvest Real Estate Development, we believe that the future of African urban growth lies in leveraging innovative land tenure models to unlock underutilised assets and channel investment into sustainable and inclusive development.

Westown, a catalytic leasehold project developed by Fundamentum Property Group in KwaZulu-Natal is a compelling demonstration of how this can be achieved.

This white paper offers a critical analysis of Westown from a leasehold investment perspective. It outlines how the project has activated dormant municipal land, structured public-private collaboration, and enabled scalable mixed-use development without the constraints of traditional freehold ownership.

The lessons drawn here are not only relevant to investors evaluating Westown, but also to those considering similar models in fast-growing regions like the Western Cape, where Zebinvest is actively applying these principles.

2. Strategic Context: Urban Expansion Meets Tenure Innovation

Durban’s westward expansion has long been hampered by fragmented land holdings and the high cost of infrastructure-led development. Westown represents a strategic response to these challenges, prioritising coordinated planning, institutional investment, and a leasehold framework that aligns municipal interests with investor returns.

By retaining land ownership while unlocking its economic value through leasehold rights, the eThekwini Municipality has set a national benchmark in how public land can be deployed without alienation—an increasingly important principle in South African land reform and urban management policy.

3. Westown’s Vision and Components

The development concept behind Westown is holistic and visionary: a connected, economically diverse urban node that blends lifestyle, logistics, retail, and residential uses across a phased precinct model.

Key components include:

Retail: The Westown Square as a regional anchor
Housing: Diverse typologies catering to mixed-income demographics
Mobility: Road, rail, and transport integration west of Durban
Public Infrastructure: Bulk services and ecological corridors
Investment Catalysts: Institutional, commercial, and healthcare precincts

This model reflects what we at Zebinvest see as a future-proof approach: creating self-sustaining micro-cities on leased land, with the private sector shouldering development risk and the public sector securing long-term asset control.

4. Understanding the Leasehold Model

As developers who exclusively work with leasehold structures, Zebinvest recognises the strategic advantage this model offers:

Lower Capital Entry: No freehold acquisition costs
Government Alignment: Lease terms formalised through registered title deeds
Sustainable Revenue Models: Lease premiums and rentals that feed public budgets
Exit Optionality: Transferable rights with institutional oversight

At Westown, the 99-year leasehold structure underpins investor security while maintaining municipal land sovereignty. It is a replicable template for other metros seeking to grow without selling off core land assets.

5. Phased Implementation and Risk Structuring

Westown’s phased development model allows infrastructure, demand, and investment to grow in tandem. At each stage, risk is distributed:

Phase 1 (2023–2026): Infrastructure groundwork, Westown Square completion, residential precincts in approval
Future Phases: Logistics parks, agro-processing hubs, and affordable housing rollout

This aligns with Zebinvest’s core belief that phased delivery de-risks complex urban development by sequencing infrastructure investment and occupancy.

6. Impact: Economic, Social, and Institutional

What makes Westown significant is not just its physical scale, but its systemic impact:

Job Creation: Estimated 30,000+ direct and indirect jobs over the life of the project
Enterprise Development: Procurement and construction linked to local SMMEs
Urban Inclusion: Access to land, housing, and services in an equitable structure
Environmental Stewardship: Integrated green space and stormwater management

This is development with purpose, another reason Zebinvest continues to advocate leasehold as a tool for inclusive growth.

7. Key Investor Insights from Westown

From our perspective, Westown offers several investor lessons:

Insight	Investor Takeaway
Government as land partner	Stable tenure with long-term risk mitigation
Leasehold capital efficiency	Strong ROI potential with lower upfront land costs
Infrastructure-led staging	Demand-led absorption of space reduces vacancy risk
Public-private co-investment	De-risks enabling works and unlocks latent land value
Institutional framework	Legal certainty through registered long-term leases

8. Conclusion: Applying the Westown Model

Zebinvest is actively applying the core principles proven at Westown in our projects across the Western Cape, particularly in regions where infrastructure gaps, private land holdings, and community partnerships converge.

Westown demonstrates that leasehold development, once seen as an alternative, is now a best-practice strategy for scaling real estate in emerging cities. We encourage institutional investors, landowners, and public sector stakeholders to study Westown closely as a blueprint for asset unlock, sustainable finance, and inclusive urban growth.