OVERVIEW
Construction and property Cape Town aims to integrate housing and transport planning.
SECTOR INSIGHT The V&A Waterfront’s Canal District is booming.
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ew York has The Battery. Cape Town now has Battery Park, pictured. Fort Amsterdam was built in 1626 as the headquarters of the Dutch West Indies Company on what we now know as Manhattan. The Amsterdam Battery was built on Cape Town’s shores in 1784 to protect the traders of the Dutch East Indies Company from the aggressive intent of other trading powers. Two walls from the original structure have been maintained in the R300-million conversion of the site of the old Dutch fort to a public park that marks the eastern entrance to the V&A Waterfront. This is part of the larger project to expand development along the canals, which link the Waterfront with the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CITCC) and have become a focus area in themselves. Waterway House, where British American Tobacco has recently established its headquarters, is near the park, as is the Queen’s Hotel, which is undergoing a renovation. Cape Town has been experiencing a property boom for several years. However, the FNB August Property Barometer reports that the average growth in house prices in select areas such as the Atlantic seaboard (shown on the next page) and the city bowl was much lower in the second quarter of 2018 than it was in 2016. It could be argued that average growth in house prices of 27.7% (Atlantic seaboard) and 23.9% (city bowl) were so high in 2016 that those sorts of figures could not be repeated. FNB property analyst John Loos was quoted in the Sunday Times saying that “people got over-excited” and suggested that there might be an overWESTERN CAPE BUSINESS 2019
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supply of flats in parts of the city. The CEO of development company FWJK, Dave WilliamsJones, noted that contractors’ margins were tight but said development would carry on. He also said, “Each new development is worth about 5 000 jobs.” Research shows that the demand for housing will not abate soon. Cape Town has adopted a long-term Transport Oriented Development (TOD) plan which look at housing density in conjunction with transport patterns. It is estimated that greater Cape Town will need 500 000 new homes by 2023, in addition to 3.5-million square metres of office space, one-million square metres of retail space and 4.5-million square metres of industrial development. To deal with these issues, Cape Town has established the Transport and Urban Development Authority (TDA). The TDA is charged with getting the right mix of urban development and travel patterns. With responsibility for transport, urban planning, public housing and environmental sustainability in one place, there is a better chance of “joined-up” thinking. Part of this strategy can be seen in plans for mixed housing on 13 sites in Salt River and Woodstock that the City of Cape Town has made available at 10% of market value. Social housing non-profit company Communicare has been working with the city on the project which envisages 30% of the housing stock being available for low-income households, 14% for the gap market and the rest of the houses being available on the open market.
