Divercity Urban Property Group’s Jewel City Precinct in central Johannesburg has been shortlisted in the Real-world Impact of the Year category of the 2022 United Nations Principles of Responsible Investment (UN-PRI) Awards. The development has also been shortlisted for the UN-PRI Emerging Markets Initiative of the Year award as one of the five highest-scoring qualifying entries in the awards’ other four categories.
The announcement comes days after Jewel City was named the winner of two South African Property Owners Association (Sapoa) 2022 Property Development Awards for Innovate Excellence: Best Residential Development and the overall Transformation (impact) Award.
“We are delighted that Jewel City has received such esteemed recognition. These honours are significant because they are independent third-party validation of our thesis that developing affordable quality 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.
Jewel City spans six city blocks of urban amenities in the heart of Johannesburg. Divercity invests substantially in these areas to offer essential social amenities such as childcare, education, healthcare, sport facilities, public recreational spaces, and daily retail.
The UN-PRI Real-world Impact of the Year 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.
The winner of each UN-PRI Awards category will be announced on 1 December 2022 in Barcelona, Spain.