Purpose of this paper: Most countries have grappled with ‘urban decay’ as a problem especially in African cities. The paper aims to find a better approach to reversing this phenomenon so as to promote and safeguard future direct real estate investments into inner cities as they have proved to give yields much comparable to affluent areas.

Design/methodology/approach: This paper used data collected from qualitative research design, 18 semi-structured interviews carried out in 2018 and supplemented by document analysis. Thematic analysis brought out plausible strategic investment themes through which urban regeneration can be promoted in the decayed inner cities. The limitation of the study is that only the case of Johannesburg inner city was covered in the study

Findings: The main finding is that investments in urban regeneration is fraught with stigma that to some extent is justifiable due to high corruption levels in the execution of such projects. However, returns on current inner-city investments are not too depressed compared to affluent neighbourhoods. The paper recommends that the best approach towards progressive urban regeneration is for developers to work with government and the communities that live within inner cities. This will stop the reoccurrence of urban decay. The paper put forward guidelines that can be adapted and applied to solicit further investments into the inner city.

Value of paper: Direct real estate investment guidelines suggested in this paper are plausible in encouraging investors to participate more in urban regeneration.