Five-hectare site bought at a 10,2% yield as Paarl's development boom lifts demand for business space.
With the Cape Winelands seeing some of the fastest development in the Western Cape, Inospace, South Africa's largest owner of last-mile logistics and storage parks, has agreed to acquire a 5-hectare industrial site in Paarl from Mpact Limited for R185m. The property, which will be known as Paarl Works, is being bought at a year one yield of 10,2%.
Paarl Works sits on the corner of Borssenberg Street and Jan van Riebeeck Drive and has 29 541m2 of gross lettable area. It is fully let to Versapak Proprietary Limited (formerly Greenpath Recycling), a subsidiary of Sinica Manufacturing, on a five-year lease that began in November 2024. The site was previously used by Mpact Versapak to produce styrene and PET trays, punnets and vinyl cling film, and has new roof sheeting and rooftop solar. The seller is Mpact Paarl Property Proprietary Limited. The deal is subject to release of the existing mortgage bond, with transfer expected in the fourth quarter of 2026.
The purchase follows a wave of investment across the region, from Val de Vie's continued expansion to new retail nodes like Winelands Square and the R270m redevelopment of Paarl Mall. Industrial space has not kept pace. Cape Town's industrial vacancy rate averaged just 3,3% in the first half of 2026, according to the Rode Report, rental rates in Paarl now average R70 per square metre, and there is a shortage of available industrial space across the Western Cape.
“The Winelands is one of the fastest-growing parts of the province, and all of that growth creates demand for the businesses that serve it, who need space close to their customers,” said Rael Levitt, founder and CEO at Inospace. “We spent 18 months looking for the right site in Paarl. This is well located and well built, with income in place from day one and real long-term upside. With space short and building costs rising, we would rather buy a strong asset than build the same thing from scratch.”
The purchase is also a return to familiar ground for Levitt, who kept an office in Paarl for almost 20 years after buying Boland Bank Auctioneers in 1994.
Although Paarl Works is let to a single tenant, Inospace plans to apply its multi-let model over time, introducing storage, microwarehouse units and a business hub as space becomes available. The aim is to grow the property into a hub serving small and medium-sized businesses in the Winelands.
The acquisition adds to Inospace's buying programme, which includes recent purchases of industrial sites in Johannesburg and Cape Town, and a rollout of eight new storage sites in Cape Town this year.
About Inospace
Inospace operates more than 50 business parks with over 2,100 SME tenants across Cape Town and Johannesburg, offering flexible multi-let industrial space alongside a growing national self-storage platform.
