Boxwood Property COO’s vision for city centre is as bold as her career journey.

Sarah Divaris’s story is a combination of personal success, urban evolution and the broader shifts shaping how to live and work in the Mother City. At 30, she is one of the youngest professionals in South Africa’s property industry and the Chief Operating Officer of Boxwood Property Fund. Here, she shares her vision for Cape Town’s CBD and why she’s passionate about inner-city renewal.

Divaris has a bold vision for property in Cape Town.

“The biggest opportunities lie in regeneration: reimagining aging buildings and overlooked sites into vibrant, relevant spaces that meet the needs of the next generation of urban users,” says Divaris, a CFA Charterholder.

But it is not just her vision that has got her noticed.

Eight years ago, Sarah Divaris was an ambitious UCT Business Science graduate who’d just started working at Boxwood Property Fund. “The company was in its early stages, but it had a big vision,” she recalls. “From the beginning, I was involved in all aspects of the business”.

Today Boxwood Property Fund is one of Cape Town’s leading property investors, investing in retail, commercial and industrial spaces. It has invested over R4.5 billion, of which R1.4 billion has been into the Cape Town city centre.

Creativity and confidence in the property sector

Divaris’s mettle was tested with Boxwood’s first acquisition in 2018 when they purchased a portfolio of office buildings from Rebosis Property Fund for R888 million. But her favourite project to date has been driving the transformation of the old Shell House in Lower Burg Street into a vibrant, community-inspired space, now aptly called The Box.

“We redeveloped the ground floor into a public food market, featuring food pods run by entrepreneurs, communal seating, outdoor workspaces and free Wi-Fi, which has proved to be a hit with both tenants and the greater public.” 

She says it is this type of creativity that drew her to the property sector. 

“It’s one of the few industries where you can merge numbers with imagination, and where the impact of your work is both tangible and lasting. We’re not just developing buildings – we’re shaping skylines, communities, and the environments in which people live, work and connect,” she says.

Divaris believes it’s vital to have younger people in senior leadership and is passionate about fostering entrepreneurship in South Africa. One of the biggest lessons she has learnt is the importance of confidence.

“This is especially as I’m often the youngest person in the room.” But confidence in property isn’t about being bold for the sake of it, she maintains. “It’s about being prepared, informed and grounded in your research.” 

Since 2017, her role has grown significantly. “Today, I oversee a wide range of projects that have helped grow the business into a diversified property portfolio worth R4.5 billion,” she says. “It’s been a journey built on vision, grit and a relentless focus on value creation.”

Read the full article about Divaris’s impressive rise in the Cape Town property world here: https://bit.ly/42AZDBg