Tigere Property Fund has released its 2025 financial results and the headline numbers are telling one story but but the detail buried within the operational commentary is telling another more instructive one.

Restaurants, fast food outlets and entertainment tenants at the Greenfields Retail Centre on Samora Machel Avenue in Harare recorded sales performance in November and December that exceeded management's own expectations, with the property maintaining 100% occupancy throughout.

In a year that was, for the most part, cruel to Zimbabwe's formal retail sector, this outcome deserves careful analysis.

Greenfields opened its Phase 1 doors in mid-December 2024 along one of Harare's most heavily trafficked arterial roads, a corridor linking Bulawayo Road to the city's central business district. Its U-shaped design was not accidental. By maximising shopfront visibility, the architecture was engineered for turnover.

Anchored by SPAR and sub-anchored by KFC Greenfields, Liquor Supplies, Rollers and Simbisa Brands, the centre moved quickly from opening excitement to sustained trading momentum. By the time Hungry Lion opened its doors at the same site in August 2025, becoming Zimbabwe's very first international Hungry Lion store, footfall had already entrenched a pattern that management would later describe as overwhelmingly strong.

The centre's gross lettable area of 14,000 square metres across 54 tenants was fully absorbed before the ink on the acquisition circular had dried.

The November and December trading figures are consequential because they are seasonally significant but also structurally revealing. These months represent the festive period, when consumer spending in Zimbabwe tends to consolidate into experiences rather than goods. Zimbabweans, particularly in urban centres, have shown a measurable preference for dining out and entertainment during the holiday season, even as their discretionary income remains under pressure throughout the rest of the year.

Restaurants and quick service restaurant brands have become the beneficiaries of a behavioural shift in how urban consumers allocate their spending. When the budget is constrained, a meal out with family carries symbolic weight that a clothing purchase or home goods item does not. Greenfields, with its concentration of food and entertainment tenants, is positioned at the centre of this shift.

The broader economic environment also helps explain why this positioning is both timely and durable. Zimbabwe's GDP growth was projected at 6% for 2025, one of the highest in the Southern African region, supported by recoveries in agriculture and mining.

Monthly exports crossed the US1 billion threshold for the first time in October 2025, a milestone that signalled improved macroeconomic activity. Dollarisation has advanced in practice, with an increasing share of retail transactions conducted in US dollars, which has provided a degree of pricing stability for businesses operating in formal, USD-denominated lease structures.

Tigere's entire portfolio operates on US dollar leases, which insulates its rental income from local currency fluctuation and provides investors with predictable returns. For the 2025 financial year, the fund guided distributable earnings exceeding US2.3 million, representing a 17% to 22% increase from the prior year, with quarterly distributions of at least US1 million targeted from 2026 onward. Total capitalisation reached US101 million following the Greenfields and Zimre Park Drive-Thru acquisitions.

This financial resilience at the property level stands against a backdrop of significant structural difficulties in the broader retail sector. OK Zimbabwe, the country's largest formal retailer, recorded a loss of US$25 million for the year to March 2025 and saw revenues decline by more than 50%. The company cited currency volatility, supply chain disruptions and competition from a sprawling informal sector that accounts for an estimated 65% to 70% of retail trade in Zimbabwe.

TM Pick n Pay also reported an adjusted revenue loss over the same period, as it continues to navigate the same structural headwinds. Choppies has put its Zimbabwean operations up for sale. Metro Peech, once a significant wholesale chain, was placed under corporate rescue. The formal grocery retail model, built on high fixed costs, regulated pricing and formal supply chains, has struggled to adapt to an economy where the informal sector competes with lower overheads and no tax burden.

What Greenfields illustrates is that not all formal retail faces the same risk profile. The headwinds battering grocery-led retailers informal competition, supply chain fragility, currency pricing mismatches, are considerably less acute for food service and entertainment operators. A restaurant does not compete directly with a street vendor on the same terms that a formal supermarket does.

The experience component of dining out, the branded environment, the consistency of product and the social dimension of the visit, creates a pricing premium that consumers willingly absorb. KFC, Simbisa's stable of brands including Nando's and Steers, and the newly arrived Hungry Lion all carry brand equity that is not easily replicated in an informal setting. Simbisa, which operates more than 330 counters in Zimbabwe and serves millions of customers each quarter, has consistently grown its customer visit counts even in years when revenue growth in real terms was modest.

Customer visits in Zimbabwe grew 12% year-on-year in its FY2025 first quarter, demonstrating that frequency of engagement with the QSR category is rising regardless of the broader economic pressure.

The growing presence of South African restaurant brands in Zimbabwe is a structural trend that deserves its own analysis. Hungry Lion, which became the fastest-growing fried chicken brand in Africa, chose Greenfields as its Zimbabwean debut, a decision that reflects the centre's demographics and catchment area as much as it does the brand's continental ambitions. The Smokehouse, a popular Bulawayo restaurant chain, opened its first Harare outlet at Greenfields in the fourth quarter of 2025. These brands are drawn to localised retail formats rather than large regional malls because smaller, well-located neighbourhood centres generate the foot traffic density and tenant synergies that deliver strong turnover.

The direction is away from the single mega-mall model and toward a constellation of community-facing retail nodes, each serving a defined catchment with a tight tenant mix weighted toward food, fast service and experience.

This is where the Greenfields story connects to a wider structural shift in how retail property is being developed and valued in Zimbabwe. Tigere CEO Brett Abrahamse noted that Greenfields has challenged the assumption that retail investment viability is concentrated in the northern and eastern suburbs of Harare, what he described as the so-called golden triangle. The Samora Machel corridor, previously underserved by premium retail infrastructure, demonstrated that where population density, commuter traffic and unmet demand converge, the right product will perform. The queue of tenants seeking space at Greenfields, which prompted an expansion beyond the original design, is as compelling a market signal as any occupancy statistic.

Tigere's asset under management target of US100 million by end of FY2026 is no longer a stretch ambition. With Greenfields formally included in its REIT structure following unitholder approval of the US24.2 million acquisition in late 2025, and with the Jurassic Safari Theme Park anchoring Phase 2 development on track for H1 2026, the centre is positioned to become a multi-dimensional destination rather than a conventional strip mall. The theme park element is an acknowledgement that the battle for consumer time and wallet share in urban Zimbabwe is being fought on the terrain of experience, not goods, and that the property assets with the best long-term earnings trajectory are the ones that understand this.

For investors tracking the Zimbabwe property sector, the Greenfields results offer a clear investment thesis. Retail assets anchored by food service, quick service restaurants, entertainment and a curated tenant mix are demonstrating earnings resilience that grocery-led assets cannot currently match. The localization of international brands, the expansion of domestic QSR operators and the shift toward neighbourhood retail formats are collectively creating a durable demand platform. In a year when formal retail was under siege, food courts were feeding income statements. That is the story the 2025 Tigere results are really telling.