Cape Town - Despite an embattled economy, Cape Town’s multi-billion rand property market showed no signs of slowing, with more than R16 billion of investments which would be ploughed into local coffers – boosting property valuations in the city centre to over R30bn.
About R16.2bn of investment has, conservatively, been committed in the form of 63 developments under way in the city centre since 2012; some, of which are either in the proposed or planning phases, and expected to be completed in
2019.
The fifth annual edition of The State of Cape Town Central City Report, which is considered a yardstick for investors, detailed not only a boom in the commercial property market, but also a spike in the retail and residential options.
Carola Koblitz, communications manager for the Cape Town Central Improvement District (CCID), said since 2015, average unit prices in the central city had increased by 15% year-on-year.
This had a ripple-effect in the price of rentals, she explained.
Tenants were, on average, expected to fork out about R10 000 per month for a bachelor apartment, R15 000 for a one-bedroom flat, and approximately R22 000 for a two-bedroom flat, Koblitz said.
There was hope for lower-income earners, however.
CCID chairperson Rob Kane said there was “enormous anticipation” around the proposed Foreshore Freeway development, which was widely expected to address the issue of affordable housing in the city.
Following a call for proposals which ended last month, the city said it would take at least two years before the project got off the ground.
“The values of private property in the CBD, even of underutilised commercial buildings, are now such that it has become difficult for private developers to construct affordable housing, but a public-private partnership could very successfully enable this to finally occur,” Kane said.