Cape Town is full

Given the number of people moving to Cape Town, there is simply not enough space for the city to grow, says Greg Dart, the director at High Street Auctions.

The directors said there’s an immense appetite for the City of Cape Town development land because the geography of the peninsula is, by its nature, very limiting.

Dart said the City of Cape Town has also become very enticing with 60% less load-shedding than the rest of the country, a cash-for-power plan buying electricity from businesses that feed back into the grid and an across-the-board property rates relief package peaking at 52% for homes valued below R5 million.

He added that businesses are also migrating from Gauteng to Cape Town. As a result of this influx of people, High Street Auctions has reported record levels of interest in Cape Town land.

“In the past, bidding at City of Cape Town property sales has been competitive. This month, I think it’ll be nothing short of ferocious,” said Dart.

Dart’s comments follow the planning of a large-scale auction dated 29 June. He said that the group is auctioning large pieces of undeveloped lots, and they are attracting vast amounts of interest even from abroad

“The houses and development sites across the peninsula from Muizenberg through Grassy Park, Tafelsig, Strandfontein, Khayelitsha and across to Stand, Goodwood and Durbanville will be sold by High Street Auctions on behalf of the City of Cape Town,” said Dart.

He said that bidder interest is primarily focused on properties in the following areas: Newlands, Gardens, Durbanville and Muizenberg. Properties vary from smaller homely cottages to large-scale development lots.

Semigration has been a growing trend taking over the Western Cape as the labour market, and families begin valuing well-run municipalities and the lifestyle benefits of a major city by the sea.

The Western Cape is no longer seen as just a holiday destination. It now becoming a business-heavy weight.

According to Brent Townes, the COO of Lew Geffen Sotheby’s International Realty, businesses have also jumped on the semigration trend and have made their way down to the Cape.

Recent data acquired by the company show that demand for office spaces in the Western Cape is reaching pre-pandemic levels, following a trend of ongoing decentralisation by businesses in the country.

Townes said freehold commercial office space had been the top seller in four of the group’s freehold sales areas: Bellville, the CBD, Goodwood and Parow.

Read: South Africa’s biggest cities are killing their own economies