COVER FEATURE: TUHF
TUHF's approach
demonstrates commitment to the inner city A lack of service delivery in inner cities has become a major contributor to urban sprawl in South Africa. SA BUSINESS INTEGRATOR spoke to Sivan Govender, Operations Executive for TUHF, a specialised commercial property financing company that finances property investors exclusively in inner cities about the key issues. What do you foresee happening if this crisis is not addressed timeously? Sadly, lack of service delivery in the inner cities has become a major contributor to urban sprawl in South Africa. Though some municipalities are performing better than others, we’re seeing some degree of lack of delivery in all our funding areas. This means that investors are increasingly cautious about investing in urban densification or regeneration projects because, without reliable basic services, it’s harder to attract tenants and retain them. While TUHF and a few other large investors continue to invest in urban regeneration, our collective impact on curbing urban sprawl and uplifting communities in the inner cities could be much more significant. For example, if local municipalities were doing more to maintain roads and pavements or ensure rubble from their maintenance work is removed more timeously, the inner cities would be more attractive to developers. Slow delivery of planning approvals, occupation certificates and other municipal services are also a deterrent. We're finding that our investors are starting to look outside of the inner cities for development opportunities to diversify their risk.
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