editor's desk
Welcome to our first edition of 2020 Having gone bi-monthly, our main theme for each edition will now be based on regional overviews. So, without further ado, we begin with the Western Cape
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Editor and Publisher Mark Pettipher
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rom a regional perspective, I spoke to SAPOA Western Cape committee member Lara Schenk about the exciting things they have planned to entice SAPOA’s Western Cape members to network and be better informed about some of the trends and topical subjects within the commercial property industry. “While the plans are still a work in progress, we are putting together ideas to express a 2020 vision with a series of forward-looking seminars and networking events,” she says. In this spirit, we kicked off 2020 with more than 110 SAPOA members, property practitioners and students attending the first Urban Real Estate Research Unit (URERU) seminar of the year, sponsored by Quoin Online. François Viruly focused on the property industry’s international trends in the commercial sector, while Dave Russell, a veteran of the industry for more than 37 years (and a SAPOA member for 17 years) followed with an overview of the state of affairs in Cape Town, drawn from seven commercial property nodes. Schenk has also told us about the planned post-Budget breakfast; a session with author Crispian Olver, who published A House Divided, on the topic of “paving the way forward”; plans to take a more thorough look at the Property Practitioners Bill in a seminar titled “Property Practitioners of the Future”; an examination of the Western Cape’s transportation woes in a session titled “A Route to Growth”; and a seminar on tall buildings, “Taking You to New Heights”. I, for one, am looking forward to attending all of these, and giving you feedback. As this is a Western Cape-focused issue of Property Review, I had the good fortune
SOUTH AFRICAN PROPERTY REVIEW – FEBRUARY / MARCH 2020
of attending the launch of Wesgro’s report on the province, and would like to extend my thanks to Tim Harris for allowing me to extract some of the report’s salient points for the magazine. It’s interesting to note that the residential areas around Somerset West are fast becoming highly sought-after – and more expensive as a result. In terms of industrial development, the area behind Bellville, near Stellenbosch, has been making great strides, and seemingly can’t keep up with demand. The extracted article, which links to the full Wesgro report, ties in with what Dave Russell of Baker Street Properties outlined in the URERU seminar. In an entrepreneur-development story, the exciting PROPreneurX programme, a property entrepreneur accelerator initiative designed to provide the support needed to grow a business, gain visibility and traction for business growth, and access advice from mentors on matters related to taking the business to the next level. Going forward, we will be encouraging new voices to contribute to the magazine – and thanks to Shaheen Adams, in this issue we have a great article on inclusionary housing, a topic close to SAPOA’s heart. Thanks also goes to Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr and Norton Rose Fulbright for allowing us to republish some of their topical material. Property Point has once again supported the magazine by facilitating a one-onone interview with an entrepreneur in the wider property sphere. In this issue, we feature Munyadziwa Rikhotso of Nsovo Environmental Consulting. I hope that this month’s read will keep you riveted – and I look forward to visiting each region to gain a deeper insight into the issues of the day. If there’s a specific regional topic that’s important to you, please get in touch at mark@mpdps.com.
