Nedbank downsizing

Chunk of office and branch space cut in 2020.

Nedbank has cut the amount of office space it uses across South Africa and the rest of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region by more than half since 2016 as it moves to "consolidate" and "standardise" its own buildings.

In all, its corporate real estate floor space has been reduced from 381 000m² in 2016 to just 180 000m² at the end of June.

Due to the group's space reductions across its offices and -importantly branches, it incurred the same total cost of occupancy in the first six months of this year as it did in the same period five years ago. This is despite rental and administrative price increases as well as depreciation.

In the first half, its so-called "accommodation" expenses totalled R1.095 billion. In the first half of 2019, this was R1.091 billion. There was a 3% decrease from 2023. (Included in this figure are load shedding-related expenses, which improved over the past year. Last year, this was R62 million. This year, it decreased to R27 million.)