PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
SA Urbanism
What does it mean for the country
BY KATE THOMPSON – DUWE
The principles of New Urbanism can be applied to most cities today considering how quickly a large portion of the world’ s general population is migrating into urban areas. A statistic from the United Nations Population Fund( UNPF) states that the world is undergoing the largest wave of urban growth in history; more than half of the world’ s population now lives in towns and cities, and by 2030 this number will swell to about 5 billion.
Pam Golding’ s MD of the Western Cape, Laurie Wener, comments:“ South Africa is no exception to
the global movement of urban regeneration, with many local conversions of commercial buildings to residential and mixed use, which had already started 14 years ago, and new builds. Apartments that are within easy commuting distance to hospitals, universities and corporate institutions are very sought after as the traffic congestion and the price of fuel is ever increasing. Attractive to investors are generous tax benefits when buying new units within certain urban zones e. g. Cape Town’ s UDZ( Urban Development Zone). Scaling down from large houses to smaller lock up and leave
42 AUGUST 2016 SA Real Estate Investor www. reimag. co. za