Millennials snatch up CBD properties
CCID report shows 20- to 36-year-olds occupy big chunk of city centre
CAPE Town is following an international trend where millennials are occupying a big share of residential stock. A State of Cape Town Central City Report: 2016, A year in Review, which includes the results of a dipstick residential survey conducted in the final quarter of 2016 with 232 CBD households, showed that the group of 20- to 36-year-olds had snatched a big chunk of residences.
The report classified the millennials as people born between 1981 and 1997.
The report’s editor Carola Koblitz said millennial migration to downtowns had been extensively covered in the international media.
“While not all respondents were prepared to disclose their age, 43% of those who did fell into the 25 to 34 age group. The second largest group at just over 22% fell into the 35 to 44 age group.”
She said a US Financial Times report showed that businesses that moved out of the city during the years of urban sprawl were now returning to downtown Chicago to follow the millennials. Central City Improvement District chairman Rob Kane said the same trend was being observed in the Cape Town central city.
“We are seeing increasing numbers of corporate head offices moving into and close to the CBD. We also have people-intensive industries such as call centres, of which there are a total of 37 just in the central city,” Kane said.
Koblitz said the survey also monitored in the survey the split between ownership and rentals of properties in the CBD.
“Most respondents, 230 of the 232, were prepared to disclose whether they owned or rented their property. This was split between 54% ownership and 46% rentals.”
She said a surprising statistic from the survey showed that the number of years that respondents had lived in the central city, with just over 36% having lived in the area for five years or more, and of which just under 17% had lived in the CBD for more than 10 years.
“The next largest group, just under 16%, falls into the category of having lived in the CBD for three to five years. Just over 15% have been here for two to three years, and just over 14% have been for one to two years. Just over 18% are relatively new to the area, having lived here for less than one year.”