The Waterfall Management Company’s (WMC’s) Waterfall City was honoured with the Best International Mixed-use Development 2022/23 award at the yearly International Property Awards ceremony, held at the Savoy Hotel, in London, in the UK, on February 2.

WMC is the property, asset and operational manager for the Waterfall City land.

This is the fifth time in six years that Waterfall City has beaten competitors to claim the top spot. This year’s nominees included mixed-use developments in Cyprus, Brazil, Qatar and Hong Kong.

Entries were judged based on criteria ranging from design layout and quality, architecture, services and security, to innovation, originality, marketing and commitment to sustainability.

Waterfall City also garnered the regional title of Best Mixed-use Development in Africa for the eighth time. This follows after Waterfall City was recently named Best Mixed-use Development in South Africa, also for the eighth time.

The International Property Awards, now in their thirty-first year, celebrate the very best projects and professionals in the industry across 45 residential and commercial categories. Awards are split into four sectors namely, Architecture, Development, Interior Design and Real Estate, across nine regions covering Africa, Asia Pacific, Arabia, Canada, Caribbean, Central and South America, Europe, UK and the US.

Over the past year, a panel of over 90 independent expert judges studied and assessed more than 2 000 entries from 126 countries to finally arrive at the World’s Best winners.

“Building a world-class smart city of this nature is certainly no small feat. It takes a concerted and cohesive effort, with all role players and stakeholders moving in unison in the same direction to realise the vision and honour the values that are fundamental to every aspect of Waterfall City.

“Reclaiming the title of Best International Mixed-use Development is just reward for our continued efforts and something we are extremely proud of. We are honoured to receive this international recognition which once again puts Waterfall City and South African property development on the world stage,” comments WMC CEO Willie Vos.

WMC has been working with developers and investors since 2004, to create the largest mixed-use development in Africa.

Noted to be not even half complete yet, Waterfall City still has over 1.6-million square metres of gross leasable area (GLA) to be developed.

When complete, it is estimated that Waterfall City will combine 28 000 residential units housing about 80 000 people, with about 2.5-million square metres of GLA for commercial and office space, accommodating a further 95 000 people.

The current estimated developed value of Waterfall City is about R100-billion.