{"id":598046,"date":"2022-06-19T07:18:30","date_gmt":"2022-06-19T05:18:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=598046"},"modified":"2022-06-19T07:18:30","modified_gmt":"2022-06-19T05:18:30","slug":"big-shift-coming-for-south-africas-richest-square-mile-as-more-people-work-from-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/598046\/big-shift-coming-for-south-africas-richest-square-mile-as-more-people-work-from-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Big shift coming for ‘South Africa\u2019s richest square mile’ as more people work from home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sandton, historically known as Africa\u2019s richest square mile, is set to see a fundamental shift in the coming years as old office buildings are turned into residential spaces.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Sunday Times<\/a><\/strong>, Belinda Echeozonjoku, member of the mayoral committee responsible for development planning in the City of Joburg, said the city\u2019s spatial development framework will now be focused on sustainable and more equal living.<\/p>\n

She added that there will be more of a focus on the densification of \u201cwell-located\u201d areas rather than the city spreading outwards through the development of new townships and suburbs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have our apartheid history and a housing mismatch situation in which large populations are living far away in residential-only areas, having to travel huge distances for everything. It makes no sense having everything separate and creates car-oriented living when what we want is a walkable city,\u201d Echeozonjoku said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you divide services among more people, the costs are lower. You may have to replace small pipes with bigger ones, but you don\u2019t have to build new infrastructure and your maintenance stays the same,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The clearest example of this is the R3 billion Barlow Park project that will see the corporate park that housed Barloworld\u2019s head office into a ‘mega-city’ with 4,100 residential units.<\/p>\n

The project, which will break ground in June, will include an urban forest, a business centre, a 5,500 sqm retail space which includes a Checkers and a Clicks, a medical centre as well as a recreation centre, pool, clubhouse, gym, sports facilities, restaurants and a school.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Growthpoint’s view<\/strong><\/p>\n

Growthpoint Properties, South Africa’s largest domestic office landlord with 161 properties, said that it continues to see a shift in office developments and working from home in its financial results published this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cEconomic imperatives are driving some companies to reduce their office spaces, and work-from-home routines are creating uncertainty about future space requirements. The good news is that the initial sentiment that offices would no longer be needed is receding with hybrid working patterns set to endure.<\/p>\n

\u201cBigger businesses are returning their staff to offices with different strategies, some fully with others are still on a rotational system. We have started to see smaller tenants that previously vacated their offices return to the market.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growthpoint said that the office sector is particularly stressed in Gauteng and Sandton specifically, although it expects this business and financial hub to recover in due course. In conversation with its clients, Growthpoint said that it is seeing different dynamics.<\/p>\n

\u201cTechnology has made it easy for people to work remotely, and staff save on the time and cost of travelling. But not all staff have access to ideal working environments at home or standby power in the case of outages. At the same time, they still miss their office environment and the social interaction that comes with it,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Although many companies are still uncertain of their future working arrangements, the hybrid model appears the be a front runner for now, the group said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than just a space to work, collaborate and interact with colleagues, office space plays an undeniably vital role in building and maintaining company culture. Working remotely may still work for existing client relationships, but it is hard to establish those relationships with new clients in a virtual setting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growthpoint said it also anticipates that the changes brought on by the pandemic will influence some of the outdated preconceptions we have about what this space should offer. \u201cHistorically, a high parking ratio has been preferable, but in the future, we may be able to use our resources more effectively and provide other amenities that are more important,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

\n

Read: It\u2019s not worth driving into the office anymore with another petrol hike, South Africa\u2019s workers say<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sandton, historically known as Africa\u2019s richest square mile, is set to see a fundamental shift in the coming years as old office buildings are turned into residential spaces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":295910,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-598046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598046"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":598062,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598046\/revisions\/598062"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}