Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa February/March 2019 | Page 14

COVER FEATURE
Where to buy your
next property?
Investment Hot spots and new
development locations
PART ONE Johannesburg
BY NEALE PETERSEN
D
espite tough economic times and headwinds in the
property industry South Africa’s new property de-
velopment construction pipeline is still growing at
a rapid pace. This confidence is reflected in current Stats SA
reports which recorded building plans passed by larger munic-
ipalities at current prices per province for the period January
-July 2018. The province which approved the largest amount
of building plans per total square meterage for this period was
the Western Cape with a total of 1,413,402 m2 in approved
plans. Gauteng followed at 1,111,604 m2 in approved plans,
and KwaZulu-Natal placed a distant third at just 291,014 m2. 
Gauteng outperformed the Western Cape in terms of
plans for freestanding properties, while the Western Cape
outperformed Gauteng in terms of plans approved for
townhouses and flats. Deon van Zyl, head of the Western
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FEBRUARY/MARCH 2019 SA Real Estate Investor Magazine
Cape Development Forum says that Western Cape could
have been much more. He says over R60bn in commercial and
residential proposals are ‘stuck’ in the municipalities ‘red tape’
system pending approval. More and more Capetonians are
choosing to renovate their sectional titles closer to the CBD
rather than relocate to freestanding homes where they would
be forced to endure the commuting problem. The prominence
of cranes in these cities demonstrate as a positive sign of
development activity.
These new property developments are significant indicators
from developers that our local property market is bullish.
Despite investors being highly challenged at all times and
it is perceived that buyers will always invest in well-priced
properties.