While commercial property and luxury residential developments have dominated the Cape Town CBD’s landscape during recent years, affordable housing near the city centre hasn’t always been easy to find.
Cape Town’s mayor, Patricia de Lille, and her team have vowed to remedy the situation with the recently announced inner-city social housing initiative.
This large project will prioritise areas close to the CBD for the construction of affordable housing – reducing the amount of time and money that workers spend getting to and from work every day.
Redesigning Cape Town as an Inclusive City with affordable housing
Like all urban spaces in South Africa, Cape Town has to deal with the regrettable consequences of Apartheid-era urban planning.
Lower-income areas are typically located far from the CBD and traditional suburbs. The result of this is long commutes to work by taxi or train for the thousands of workers who work in the CBD and can’t afford their own vehicles. The safety of these public transportation options is often poor. While the MyCiti bus service slowly expands, many workers are fully dependent on taxis which are often on strike and trains that are far from punctual to get to work and enjoy the city’s shopping and lifestyle offerings.
By providing affordable housing within short distances of the CBD, the City of Cape Town’s housing initiative aims to reduce the daily burden of commuting, while creating a city where all residents can work, shop, and relax together.
Affordable housing project may have a great impact on the city’s economy
With affordable housing being built by the City in partnership with developers and the private sector, the CBD, Foreshore and Waterfront areas will have an increased number of workers and customers within short distance.
For businesses and commercial property owners in the city centre, the project may bring increased passing trade, more profitable retail tenants and a general uptick in the CBD’s business environment – all of which bodes well for the area’s future development.
If you’d like to invest in commercial property in the flourishing Cape Town CBD – either as an owner or a tenant – contact us today.
