One of the largest commercial property auctions ever to be held in SA will be hitting the auction floor early next month.

A property portfolio worth R250m owned by the listed SA Corporate Real Estate Fund (SA Corp) will go under the hammer.

The fact that SA Corp wants to dispose of these properties, is nothing new. It was announced earlier this year, but trying to do it via the auction route could be regarded as a desperate attempt to get rid of the properties.

Moreover, the sale comes at a bad time as the properties were bought at the apex of the cycle and will now be sold after the cycle is near its lowest point.

SA Corp were criticised at the time for paying too much for a property portfolio that was acquired from Sharemax.

Anton de Goede, property portfolio manager at Coronation, says the extent of the auction reflects the pressure corporate South Africa is under. He says it seems that current single tenant properties aren't necessarily purchased by the tenants.

Furthermore, it points to the limited financing available for commercial properties purchases.

He says this move is part of SA Corp's bid to reduce its number of properties to raise the average value per property. "Fewer properties in a portfolio make it less intensive to manage."

The properties will be sold on two auctions – one in Cape Town and one in Durban on 2 December.

Rael Levitt, CE of auction house Alliance Group, says the properties include one of the largest number of retail properties ever offered at an auction in SA.

He expects the property, the Highland Mews shopping centre in Witbank spanning 17,000sqm, to achieve close to R70m at the auction. In fact, listed property funds are already showing keen interest.

The properties will not be given away for free and they have reserve prices.

Another property drawing big interest is the Chapel Street building in Pietermaritzburg, which houses KwaZulu-Natal's department of health. Levitt says properties like this one with single tenants seldom come on to the market – Elma Kloppers, Sake24

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