François Viruly is a property economist with over twenty-five years’ experience in the analysis of the South African property market. Associate Professor Viruly lectures in Urban Economics, Property Development and Portfolio Management at the University of Cape Town in the School of Construction Economics and Management. François held the position of Chief Economist at the Chamber of Mines.
He was Head of Research at JHI Professional Services and Acting Head of School of the School of Construction Economics and Management at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He is the President of the International Real Estate Society and is immediate past President and Executive Director of the African Real Estate Society. He heads the UCT-Urban Real Estate Research Unit. He had served as president and executive director of the African Real Estate Society and is presently the president of the International Real Estate Society.
He is the Director of Viruly Consulting Pty Ltd and a fellow of RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors). Prof Viruly has undertaken extensive research into the South African property cycle, the drivers of the South African property market and the relationship between urban economics and property markets in Sub-Saharan Africa. More recently his focus has shifted to sustainability in the real estate sector with a special emphasis on the “S” of ESG.

Qualifications: BA (Law) PGDEM (UCT)
Quintin has a wealth of real estate experience in both the listed and private property sector specialising in all aspects of management relating to commercial, retail, industrial, residential and hotel assets.

Quintin started his career in real estate with the Cape Town based Baker Street Properties where after joining Redefine Properties Limited. During his time at Redefine, Quintin was in charge of executing the national leasing strategy for the group across 450 nation-wide assets. A hands-on approach to real estate has always been a key hallmark of Quintin’s operating mantra, which has proven over the years to be a recipe of success for Spear.

Quintin co-founded Spear with Mike Flax & Abu Varachhia in 2011 as a private equity real estate investment business focusing on owning Western Cape assets with a Cape Town bias.
Spear started out life with a R 334 million real
estate portfolio. Asset growth had grown to R 1,4 billion and in November 2016 Quintin lead the team in listing Spear on the JSE as the only regionally focused REIT on the exchange and held the position of Managing Director until 17 May 2018. Quintin succeeded Mike Flax as Group Chief Executive Officer and is responsible for the overall leadership of the business, setting the trajectory of the business, engaging the capital markets, executing the overall group strategy of Spear, and
ensuring that the business is placed in the best possible position to take advantage of growth opportunities within the Western Cape real estate market. Quintin leads the business, capital raising team, investor relations and corporate engagements. Quintin’s Executive Team is made up of experienced real estate professionals being CFO Christiaan Barnard, COO Cliff Toerien & CIO Kim Pfaff-Karg.
Spear REIT Limited is the only regionally focused REIT on the JSE and exclusively focusses on owning
high quality assets within the Western Cape. Spear obtains its specialisation through regional investment and its diversification through varying asset type investing. Spear listed on the JSE in November 2016 with assets under ownership of R1,4 billion. Currently Spear has assets under ownership of R4,3 billion. The current GLA of the Spear portfolio is 436 436m2 and consists of 454 tenants spread across commercial, industrial, retail and hospitality assets. Spear is a fully internally
managed fund conducting all asset, property, financial and development management internally.

Spear owns the iconic No.2 Long Street in the Cape Town which is currently where its head office is
located.
Quintin’s growth ambitions for Spear are for this regional fund to become a 100 year old business and to become a meaningful mid-cap REIT with its ultimate goal of owning assets in the region of circa R15bn and a market cap of R8bn.