ABACUS GROUP: Developer You Can Count on from Concept to Completion
With roots dating back as far as 2003, the Abacus Group’s consistently practical and innovative approach to property development sees its vast expertise split across five distinct and all-encompassing development divisions, each as critical to the whole as the other.
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For more than 20 years, the Abacus Group’s pragmatic approach has allowed it to succeed in continually bolstering its capabilities and catering to ever-more diverse client needs. Today standing as a more than 50-strong outfit, expansions to date have resulted in five divisions spanning the full breadth of property and building, namely Abacus Development Company, Abacus Management Company, Abacus Construction Company, Abacus Real Estate Company and Abacus Innovation Company.
Each individual arm is strong, CEO David Ludditt affirms, but this concerted expansion has translated to a broadening service offering and reinforces the Abacus Group’s commitment to excellence across the board; a central focus on each section’s respective area of expertise within the industry provides an integrated approach which both enables Abacus Group to ensure customer satisfaction and encourages relentless innovation.
“Our structure allows for scalability,” Ludditt stresses, “and ensures that larger projects can be completed while maintaining efficient operations and the highest of quality standards. Our key maxim is ‘greater than the sum’, and we believe wholeheartedly in the power of synergy.”
David Ludditt, CEO
DISTINCT DIVISIONS
The business’s background lies heavily in the development of regional shopping centres, undertaken throughout South Africa, Ludditt outlines, with the Abacus name being adopted following the completion of the CapeGate retail facility shortly after the turn of the millennium. “20-odd years, umpteen developments and billions of Rands worth of developments later, and the organisation is the thriving, ever-evolving entity we know today,” he beams.
Fundamentally a property development company, Ludditt explains, the Abacus Group has grown into a renowned creator of luxury apartments and retail developments. “Development is our primary field,” he confirms. “We go out, find the property and complete the construction phase, and then, for example, with a shopping centre, own it for anything between three to seven years before tending to offload it back into the market, thereby unlocking funds to allow us to carry on developing on a larger scale.
“Harnessing massive experience and a deep understanding of the industry, we’ve delivered award-winning developments and defined the ‘lifestyle apartment’ category in Stellenbosch and Johannesburg,” Ludditt goes on. “Our innovation has captivated residents and investors, earning us a reputation as successful developers.”
Of the strong and steadfast supporting subsidiaries, Ludditt selects the famed Abacus Construction for particular celebration. “This asset allows us to project manage all of our own developments,” he explains, “from pre-construction to final completion of the realised project. It specialises in residential projects, including ground-up construction, renovations, remodelling, interior fit-outs and turnkey services of any size and complexity, providing exceptional solutions tailored to meet the unique requirements of our clients.
“Our highly skilled professionals are committed to excellence and work closely with our clients,” Ludditt underlines, “to understand their goals, visions, and financial constraints, ensuring that we deliver outstanding outcomes that surpass their expectations.”
Completing the Abacus quintuplet are management, real estate and innovation components, the first of which takes total ownership of the final product following construction and oversees it for a period of several years. “The new owner often opts to keep us on thereafter as the managing company,” Ludditt notes. “Abacus Innovation is effectively an architectural firm and is especially invaluable when it comes to what we term our ‘land assembly’ deals, where we purchase large tranches of land and convert them into single residential land offerings.
“We design the houses on each of these deals, and then oversee the architectural process through the construction phase, while our Abacus Construction Company is simultaneously building the single residential houses which go straight into the market for sale.” Ludditt points to a current example of a 350-erven estate in Stellenbosch as just one in a long history of such dealings for the Abacus Group. “Sometimes we sell erven through creating an entire estate, as well as its infrastructure, facilities and amenities, or alternatively we may sell directly to a third party or even build for ourselves before selling off the finished articles.”
BUILDING THE FUTURE
“We are involved in every facet of the development phase, from land acquisition to designing, building managing and then finally with delivery of the product to the third-party purchaser.”
The Abacus Group’s heritage and experience has been wrought on a national scale, Ludditt says, having built, developed and owned regional shopping centres throughout the entirety of South Africa. “Of late, our focus has been heavily within the Western Cape,” he reveals, “and politically in our opinion this is the best place to be. We have historically been involved in work in Africa, including in Angola and Malawi, as well as investigations into possibilities in Zambia.
“Our focus is not currently on Sub-Saharan Africa, however,” Ludditt confirms. “The Western Cape presents abundant opportunities and remains our primary concern, particularly within the field of student accommodation.” Specifically, Ludditt refers to the Abacus Group’s ‘Myspace’ brand, currently situated exclusively in Stellenbosch, home to arguably South Africa’s most popular university of the moment. “Currently this consists of 650 beds, which are completed, with a pipeline of work up to around 2,000,” Ludditt details. “Once we reach this point we will think about expanding into other Western Cape universities, and then nationally.
“These are significant projects, and this pipeline is probably going to last five years or so – they range from anywhere between R200 million and in excess of R1 billion each.”
The Western Cape is proving extremely fruitful for the Abacus Group’s residential prospects, too, Ludditt explains. “What we term ‘semi-gration’ – there are many people wanting to move down to the Western Cape from northern regions like Gauteng, which has resulted in a massive influx of residents and, subsequently, a need of more residences. This gives us an even healthier pipeline of work; we are looking at 10 years before we will have sold out of these developments.”
With years’ worth of work already set to keep the Abacus Group busier than ever long into the future, Ludditt explains that a key future aim is to develop the subsidiaries to one day reach the same levels as Abacus Development Company. “All of the other divisions are relatively new entities, and therefore to grow and expand those substantially over the coming years is very important. We have, clearly, a securely established property company; now we would like to establish ourselves as an architectural firm and as a contractor, whereby we can become something of a one-stop shop, providing absolutely everything for clients.
“It is still very rare in South Africa to have the full suite of disciplines under one roof, and we are incredibly excited by the prospect of expanding this option and growing the brand into a full turnkey service.”