South Africa’s R3.5 Billion Ghost Mall: The Empty Promise of Villa Retail Park

What was meant to become one of South Africa’s premier shopping destinations now stands as a grim reminder of broken promises and financial ruin. The Villa Retail Park, a R3.5 billion mega mall project located in Pretoria East, remains completely abandoned 15 years after its inception.

From Dream to Disaster

Initially backed by the now-defunct Sharemax property syndication scheme, The Villa was designed to rival Gauteng giants like Mall of Africa and Menlyn Park. With over 300,000 square metres of zoned space at a busy Pretoria intersection, the location was prime.

But everything changed when Sharemax collapsed in 2010, leaving thousands of investors in limbo and the shopping centre only 75% complete.

Enter the Nova Property Group—Sharemax’s rescue vehicle. In the years that followed, Nova took over the project under the promise of resuscitating it. However, despite occasional public commitments, the site has remained frozen in time, with no construction activity reported as of early 2025.

Insolvency and Investor Anguish

Nova Property Group’s latest financial statements raise fresh red flags. With liabilities exceeding assets by R90 million and a reported loss of R46 million for the last fiscal year, the group is now technically insolvent. This spells further uncertainty for investors still clinging to the hope of repayment or project completion.

The Villa Retail Park, once valued at over R1.5 billion, is now listed in Nova’s books at just R750 million—a sharp decline reflecting not only market realities but also the effects of long-standing legal battles and inactivity.

What Went Wrong?

At the heart of the matter lies the structure of the original investment. Sharemax turned wholesale retail property into fractional investments, offering retail investors shares in shopping centres without mortgages—an attractive but ultimately unsustainable model.

When Sharemax collapsed, the tangled ownership and legal structure left projects like The Villa in limbo. Litigation, lack of funding, and questions over who controls what have kept the development in deadlock.

Even when Nova offered to complete the project through a new entity—Villa Retail Park Investments—in 2023, no tangible progress followed. A goal to finish the mall in three years was floated, but no new funding details have been released.

A Costly Lesson

The Villa Retail Park remains a cautionary tale in South African commercial property investment. It illustrates the risks of unregulated investment schemes, poor governance, and the consequences of overpromising and underdelivering.

Investors who poured a combined R1.5 billion into this dream have received little more than silence and uncertainty. And for the city of Pretoria, what could have been an economic hub has become a monument to failed ambition.

Until legal disputes are resolved and real funding appears, Villa Retail Park will likely remain South Africa’s most expensive ghost mall.

Villa Retail Park photos

{Source: BusinessTech}

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