Affordable accomodation partnerships
Cape Town’ s development opportunity
BY CAROLA KOBLITZ
A
s property prices rise in and around the traditional CBD of the Mother City, the City of Cape Town has turned its sights towards addressing the legacies of apartheid and bringing people’ s homes closer to their places of work. A frontline of developers is urging the private sector to look towards the opportunities and embrace the challenges.
Speaking earlier this year at the 4th Annual Affordable Housing Conference in Cape Town, the mayoral committee member for transport and urban development, Brett Herron, noted:“ We must acknowledge that, to date, our efforts to radically transform Cape Town’ s spatial reality to enable all our residents to participate more equally in the local economy have fallen short.”
Announcing that the City would be developing 10“ inner-city” sites in the city centre and the inner-city suburbs of Woodstock and Salt River, Herron added:“ The manner in which we are approaching these developments represents a 180-degree change in how we will confront the urgent demand for affordable and inclusionary housing in the future. Providing affordable housing opportunities closer to where people work or close to public transport is non-negotiable.”
Strategic partnerships
Herron also noted that five of the 10 sites would be released to the private sector, which would become partners with the City. These would be in addition to the groundbreaking new
The only way our downtown can begin to supply homes at a more reasonable rate is if we see one of two things happening: incentives for developers to consider inclusionary models or – as the City is now doing – developing public / private partnerships.
Foreshore Freeway Precinct project announced by the City late last year, which could see up to 4 000 affordable units released to the market. The bulk of this six-hectare project lies in and around the Foreshore freeway, which separates the CBD from the harbour.
“ Cape Town’ s CBD accounts for over 30 % of the city’ s workforce, which in turn contributes towards creating 25 % of our city’ s economy,” says Tasso Evangelinos, CEO of the Cape Town Central City Improvement District( CCID).“ However,
38 OCTOBER 2017 SA Real Estate Investor Magazine