Hijacked Jo’burg Tower reborn: Green, Affordable & Bankable

• Pilot IFC-EDGE precinct converting hijacked stock into investable rentals
• 133 inner-city units now running lower carbon, lower operating cost
• Future blueprint: densify, reuse, green finance and make it cashflow

Background: Remington from abandoned liability to investable housing

Remington House, once abandoned and later hijacked, is now TUHF’s most important proof-of-concept in the Johannesburg CBD: affordable, well-located residential stock that still meets strict green performance standards and qualifies for IFC incentives.

This is TUHF’s first pilot under its new IFC EDGE collaboration — and it has delivered exactly what policy frameworks keep saying SA needs more of: brownfield conversions that densify where people actually work, study, commute, and live.

Why this matters and where this now goes

‍Remington retained the frame, lifts, and most of the envelope - cutting embodied carbon in half, while adding:

• 133 self-contained units
• 5 retail units
• study centre + gym
• solar + borehole + central heat pumps
• ±1,000-student node emerging across 3 adjacent buildings

And the kicker, EDGE performance incentives (±R18,500 per unit) accelerate amortisation. That’s not theory, that’s cash directly reducing debt.

This is the future template for bankable green affordable housing in SA, refurbish, not demolish; densify, don’t sprawl; structure finance so “green” directly improves IRR.

This is what the inner city should scale, 50 times over.

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