John Webber
John Webber is a Director of our Real Estate practice. He specialises in transactions related to commercial property, development of land and land use conversion, specifically from mining / agricultural to residential or industrial use, and all commercial transactions related thereto. Additionally, John has a long and established commitment to the low cost and affordable housing sector.
About John
About John
John began his career in Bloemfontein before moving to Johannesburg to join EFK Tucker as head of their Conveyancing department. In November 2000 John joined Hofmeyr Herbstein and Gihwala (now Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr) as an Associate, was promoted to Senior Associate in 2001 and became a Director in 2003. John was the National Practice Head for Real Estate during 2017-2020.
Credentials
Credentials
Education
- Registered with the Legal Practice Council
- BCom, University of the Free State
- LLB, University of South Africa (UNISA)
- Dip (Corporate Law), University of Johannesburg
- Year of admission as an attorney and conveyancer: 1999
- Admission as a notary public: 2007
Languages
Languages
- English
About John
John began his career in Bloemfontein before moving to Johannesburg to join EFK Tucker as head of their Conveyancing department. In November 2000 John joined Hofmeyr Herbstein and Gihwala (now Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr) as an Associate, was promoted to Senior Associate in 2001 and became a Director in 2003. John was the National Practice Head for Real Estate during 2017-2020.
Credentials
Education
- Registered with the Legal Practice Council
- BCom, University of the Free State
- LLB, University of South Africa (UNISA)
- Dip (Corporate Law), University of Johannesburg
- Year of admission as an attorney and conveyancer: 1999
- Admission as a notary public: 2007
Languages
- English
Experience
Establishment of new townships and registration of long term leases
Involved from the outset of the Waterfall mixed use development, where John attends to the establishment of new townships and all matters relating to the registration of long term leases of both commercial and residential property (in excess of 7000 properties).
Establishment of new townships
Attended to the establishment of in excess of 75 new townships which includes more than 34,000 erven. New township includes all of the townships created in the Waterfall mixed use development in Midrand.
City of Johannesburg
Involved in the transfer of 4,000 residential units from the City of Johannesburg to the current occupants of such rental housing stock in terms of the Regularisation and Transfer of Ownership Programme (RETRO) being run by the City of Johannesburg and the Gauteng Provincial Government: Department of Housing. Involved in the transfer of 2,500 erven in Cosmo City on behalf of the City of Johannesburg and the Cosmo City Joint Venture.
Provincial Government
Acted on behalf of both the Provincial Government: Gauteng and private developers in the delivery of RDP houses and has attended to more than 12,500 transfers to beneficiaries of new houses in terms of the RDP housing subsidy scheme.
Energy sector
Acted for Lephalale Solar (RF) (Pty) Limited in relation to the land issues for its Solar Facility for Exxaro Coal; SolarAfrica Sun Central Holdings (Pty) Limited in relation to its development of a 300MVa solar facility ((over three 100MVa phases); AMEA Power Limited in relation to the land issues for its Doornhoek Solar Facility; and Arcelor Mittal SA Limited in relation to the land issues for its Vanderbijlpark Solar Facility.
Developments
Niche and specialised development and redevelopment of properties across all sectors.
Major clients include:
The Waterfall City Management Company (Pty) Limited, Attacq Limited, Hyprop investments Limited, Investec Property (Pty) Limited, Balwin Properties Limited, TUHF Limited, Context Property Solutions (Pty) Limited, Nedbank CPF (Affordable Housing Division), Rand Leases Properties (Pty) Limited, Equites Property Fund Limited, Century Property Developments (Pty) Limited, Atterbury Property Developments (Pty) Limited, Johannesburg Financial Securities (Pty) Limited group and its subsidiaries, the Cosmo City Joint Venture, the Gauteng Provincial Government: Department of Human Settlements and the Gauteng Partnership Fund.
Mining Sector
Provided comprehensive legal counsel for the strategic land assembly required to establish a new tailings storage facility near Fochville on behalf of Far West Gold Recoveries (Pty) Ltd. This included securing pipeline servitudes for transporting mine slurry and waste materials from reprocessed mine dumps to the retreatment plant, and from there to the newly developed Tailings Storage Facility.
Advised Ergo Mining on the acquisition of the Knights processing plant and the adjacent land.
News
How Waterfall City offers a glimpse into the future of long-term leases in South Africa
Long-term leases play a crucial role in providing an alternative, secure land tenure option in the real estate landscape; offering stability and a sense of security for both landlords...
Where do we stand on sale of immovable property agreements signed electronically?
Electronic signatures have become a topic of broad and current interest. The legal stance on the validity of the use of electronic signatures in the context of sale of property agreements...
Registrations during lockdown – the practical implications
The government has implemented a phased risk-adjusted strategy aimed at easing the current lockdown restrictions in the form of Alert Levels, a term defined in the regulations (the...
Domestic staff residing in Sectional Title Complexes and “working from home” during lockdown
On 14 April 2020, CDH published an alert on the Use of common property during lockdown. As a follow-on discussion from the aforementioned publication, this article deals with the permissibility of...
Use of common property during lockdown
Residents of sectional title schemes have been left with a degree of uncertainty as to whether they are to remain confined to their sections or whether the use of common property and/or...
Market recognition
- Chambers Global 2024 ranked John Webber in Band 1 for real estate.
- Chambers Global 2021–2023 ranked John in Band 2 for real estate and in Band 3 in 2019–2020.
- The Legal 500 EMEA 2021–2024 recommended him as a leading individual for real estate.
Market recognition
- Chambers Global 2024 ranked John Webber in Band 1 for real estate.
- Chambers Global 2021–2023 ranked John in Band 2 for real estate and in Band 3 in 2019–2020.
- The Legal 500 EMEA 2021–2024 recommended him as a leading individual for real estate.
Expertise
Real Estate Law
We have over 150 years of experience providing practical and insightful real estate legal expertise.
Commercial Real Estate
Our team is renowned for offering consistently sound real estate advice and expertise to commercial clients.
Corporate Debt, Turnaround & Restructuring
We have an experience team that can balance our clients' needs with the pragmatic realities they face.