Assetz® News - Cape offers good hope for developers

Cape offers good hope for developers

16th May 2007 |

South Africa in general and Cape Town in particular are offering new investment opportunities, according to International Property Solutions, which gives an upbeat assessment of the prospects for those looking to invest in property in the country.

Heath Adamson, sales and marketing director for the company, said that more and more investors were looking at property in South Africa, particularly in the Cape area.

He said: "There has been a take-up in South Africa. The majority of buyers are looking to the Cape; in the Western Cape and Cape Town specifically. We have seen an upturn in the last two to three months in that region."

There are many reasons for this, he states. Firstly, the growth rate in the property market is high, promising good returns for investors: "Last year we saw very, very steep growth figures. It has slowed slightly this year but we're still looking between about 15 to 18 per cent, I'd say, in certain regions in Cape Town…We're still seeing very strong growth figures in South Africa's prices."

Nor is this likely to slow down, he believes. For one thing, there is the forthcoming 2010 World Cup, which will partly be staged the redeveloped Green Point Stadium near the city centre. This will attract visitors as fans pour in from overseas and the city becomes the focus of world attention. Mr Adamson states: "I don't think we're going to see any slow down up to, and probably for, a couple of years after that [the World Cup]."

He insists that the bad reputation the country has for crime has not, it appears, put investors off. While this is a problem, the areas where the money and investment are tend to be much better protected by private security than poor areas. Moreover, the situation in Cape Town is much better than in Johannesburg, the country's largest city and the place with the worst reputation in this respect.

Where Cape Town also scores is in its myriad attractions, which create a potential market both for people wanting to live or holiday there. The city and the Western Cape region enjoy a mild Mediterranean climate, numerous vineyards, the spectacular scenery of Table Mountain, renowned beaches, excellent restaurants, and a wide range of flora and fauna, from the unique blooms of the Cape floral kingdom to the Boulders Bay penguin colony.

Nor is the appeal just aesthetic. Cape Town City Council has set itself the aim of compiling an integrated development plan, exploiting the economic opportunities the 2010 World Cup presents and declaring economic growth and job creation to be a priority. Such declarations have hardly been unusual since 1994, but the arrival of one of the World's biggest sporting events provides the country with potential catalyst for development, in much the same way that Olympic cities such as London are using a major sporting event to try to regenerate down-at-heel areas.

Other developments have been announced by the city as well. The central railway station is to be revamped. Proposals have been published for new public sporting facilities around the Green Point Stadium, while the authority proudly boasts that it has been recognised both as the cleanest city in the country and the one with some of the best drinking water in the world. While 2010 is three years away, the plan to make Cape Town a boom town, one in which property investors may find good returns, has already kicked off in earnest.

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