Property listings have been few and far between in the past five years, and the odd new portfolio that did come to market tended to offer more of the same — a mix of retail, industrial and office buildings.

However, in early December Gaia Fibonacci Fibre — a first-of-its-kind specialist infrastructure real estate investment trust (Reit) that invests in fibre-optic cable networks — was listed on the Cape Town Stock Exchange, originally known as 4AX...