Of everything in

Town and Icon Centre in the Foreshore with over 80 apartments, three floors of offices, and a shopping centre on the ground floor.

“More of these developments are now being built along the Atlantic seaboard in Green Point, Sea Point and the V&A Waterfront as well as in Vredehoek in the City Bowl.”

He says mixed use buildings are a significant element of Sea Point’s ongoing upgrade, with prominent projects including the extensive redevelopment of the Ritz Hotel worth more than R100 million that includes a new high end retail component and the old Nedbank Building at the end of Main Road.

“The property sector as a whole has benefited from the balanced combination of fixed and variable tenants who are increasingly less dependent on location and tourism.”

Brendan Miller, Lew Geffen Sotheby’s International Realty Atlantic Seaboard and City Bowl chief executive, says: “Mixed use developments offer many benefits to residents and businesses, not least the convenience of everything in one place, which is an increasingly appealing factor to buyers.

“Cape Town’s swelling population has exacerbated traffic congestion during peak hours, signifi- cantly extending commuting time between the city and the suburbs and people are no longer willing to spend hours in a car every day.

“Instead, people can live, work and play in one neighbourhood as they are within walking distance of amenities as well as their places of work.”

Miller says that many of these properties also cater to residents’ essential needs by incorporating shops, restaurants, gym facilities and often also offices.

Lew Geffen, chairman of Lew Geffen Sotheby’s International Realty, says that more Capetonians are beginning to recognise the value of exchanging their suburban homes for the convenience of city living.

“Correctly priced apartments are, almost without exception, snapped up within four to six weeks of being listed,” he says.

“The growing investor confidence is further evidenced by the fact that some developers are now renting out new furnished apartments in anticipation that the value of these properties will continue to grow exponentially, underpinned by a strong rental market.”

Shapiro says: “For many years, the price point for residential property on the Atlantic seaboard was a lot higher than in the City Bowl and CBD, but this gap has narrowed considerably in recent years, with city pricing now almost in line with that of Sea Point and Green Point.”

Cape Town Central City Improvement District (CCID) statistics from a survey conducted in the last quarter of last year revealed that owneroccupied residential properties in the CBD increased from 47 percent in 2014 to 52 percent last year, and 73 percent of the survey respondents lived within 3km of their work or place of study.

CCID chairman, Rob Kane, says: “Although city residents still fall primarily within the 25 to 34-yearold age group, there has recently been a notable spike in interest from investors in the 35 to 44-year age bracket.

“The survey further established that the top reason cited for living in the CBD is proximity to work, and the top category of profession among those surveyed this year is media, marketing and publishing.”

Shapiro says: “We are looking for stand-alone homes in these areas that have commercial rights or that offer subdivision to meet the rampantly growing demand for residential and commercial development.”