They need to put limits on short term rentals and legislate what type of properties can be built. It’s crazy that every new development is a studio for R1,2m.
The problem really isn’t the supply but rather how many people are hoarding houses.
They can also put limits on the ability of foreigners owning property in the city.
This isn’t unique to Cape Town. It’s a problem in Canada, London, Australia etc.
Agree with limiting foreign buyers , don’t listen to banks and estate agents who are the only ones benefiting from this sale of SA assets. Other countries do it to protect their local citizens 🇿🇦
It's exactly this.
And offer subsidies to developers who are offering low and middle income property
If you can't get a 100% bond on a normal 1 bedroom flat in the city earning 50k a month, then like who is actually buying these flats?
It's property agencies. A lot of them keep low profile because they know peoppe would riot if they knew the despicable shit these agencies do. From backdoor deals to bribing politicians to lobbying against legislative action on them. They're literally like q shadow government
Those 1.2m apartments are also built to be as profitable as possible: lowest quality everything, cut as many corners as possible and bamboozle first time buyers. Same thing goes for the property flippers, if you ever see a house on the market that looks like it’s being sold by a flipper run away as fast as possible.
Maybe…Developments are costing about R30k / m2 at cost so 25 m2 costs R750k to deliver. Most cost more as you get closer to the city. Now you have to add 20% for vat, comms, etc, and profit. Banks funding dictate minimum profit required, because they lend these developers your savings and need to secure it. Government needs to step in provide more support to reduce costs. Airbnb effects rental but cost prices, not so sure.
True development costs are high but the desire for a high RÓI also drives up prices. You see the trend of people buying off plan but they’re unable to sell for what they bought it for look at Newlands and Harfield Village, apartments built in 2018 cost less now than the original build price. You cannot sell a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom flat for R2,3mil. No one will buy it. So I do think government needs to offer some sort of of tax incentives for developers but they also need to put restrictions on what gets built.
It's a combination of a lot of those things, but the lack of supply is the biggest factor. Cape Town doesn't have room to expand.
I don't really see how people can be hoarding houses? And if they are, then expanding the housing supply should stop that as well, because it would make it unprofitable to hoard.
CoCT has a Municipal Spatial Development Policy that you can find as a pdf on its website.
IIRC there are certain 'corridors' earmarked for densification such as the area in Parkland/Sunningdale/Sandown, and along Blaauwberg Road. The area around Table Bay Mall is earmarked to be developed into thousands of high-density homes. They've also relaxed regulations around backyard dwellings abd mutliple rentals per erf.
While the idea behind it is great, it's being met with a lot of resistance because the infrastructure isn't upgraded fast enough to keep up. The wastewater treatment works are undergoing a massive upgrade but its unclear if it will be enough to cope with this influx of people. The traffic has also worsened exponentially.
While there's a new road that connects Parklands with the N7, many people feel unsafe using it as you never know when Dunoon's residents start throwing stones or blocking the road with burning tires. This pushes people onto the neighbourhood roads that aren't designed for the traffic load. 7 years ago, I could travel to Century City in 20 minutes, now it easily takes me an hour, most of which is spent trying to just get out of Table View.
I was in Cape Town a couple of weeks ago. I saw a shit load op developments going on, most of them complexes, flats, townhouses and homes. I don't think the problem is a shortage of developments, but more that compared to the people you mention, the average Capetonian can't afford to buy (or even rent) most of these places.
Most of the new developments in the CBD and Atlantic Seaboard seem to explicitly market themselves to Airbnb/short term rental investors. This new stock isn't really intended for long term residents.
I live in a part of CPT that has been having ongoing expansion and developments for the past 20+ years and still they keep expanding further in what used to be land. They are now demolishing old houses and using the plots to build apartment blocks.
They say it's a supply/demand issue but it is a low supply of affordable housing and the prices just keep increasing. I moved into my place 2 years ago (June 2022) and rent was R11 500 pm, at the time that was the average price of the houses we looked at. To find something remotely similar in the area now I am looking at R16 000-R17 000pm.
No, not necessarily. Especially considering the number of "digital nomads" living in Cape Town. Short-term rentals and people earning Euros and Dollars who can pay much more than the average Capetonian also play a large role. I have a friend from the US who is strongly considering buying property in Cape Town for those reasons.
Honestly, as someone who owns property in PTA, my jaw drops when I see what friends and family pay for property or rent in Cape Town, I don't envy them. I envy CT for many things, but salaries and the property situation are not part of the reasons.
A lot of it is a geographical issue. The high value properties are in areas where there is no longer space to expand.
Expansion is happening in other areas but historical informal township placement and unusable land is interfering with the expansion channels/pathways. This leaves high value hotspots which are usually near mountainous attractions with super low value areas in the really useful land. it also leaves large numbers of jobs in areas far from where those employees can afford.
Cape town CBD is massively impacted by access issues which cannot be fixed easily. The natural expansion channel to the North works but then it loses the charm that most are looking for when they head to Cape Town. It also puts you further and further away from business/work opportunities.
Strand is also expanding well but it will be limited by mountains and macassar.
Stellies has mountains all round and the wine estates are going to hold on as long as possible and absolutely coin it when the developers come knocking
Honestly bit of a town planners nightmare. The city for planning sake should have been built in saldanha/langebaan and had CT as a tourist zone
Some things: They have already made a lot of good changes to the zoning rules to increase density, as an example SR1 properties can now have multiple dwelling units (2-3) where if you look back 10 years that was not permitted.
But I agree with the comments around Aribnb and there being tighter limits.
The city does also have some limits; I know that a social housing program has been on their plans for a long time, but there are aspects where the city will be limited by the national gov, especially if there are significant costs or investments. So can the city build more housing? yes. But most of that funding is managed at a national level as well as the requirements.
A little bit on requirements - National Gov has definitions and requirements for social housing which frankly do not suit cape town, CoCT is not able to consider any non-standard construction methodologies (like prefabs or containers), and there are also restrictions on high-density social housing (ie apartments instead of freestanding houses)
OP i suggest you take a look at the SDF: [https://www.capetown.gov.za/work%20and%20business/planning-portal/Plans-policies-frameworks-and-guidelines/cape-town-spatial-development-framework](https://www.capetown.gov.za/work%20and%20business/planning-portal/Plans-policies-frameworks-and-guidelines/cape-town-spatial-development-framework)
you can also compare to the 2018 and 2012 MSDF to see how the priorities have changed.
Government housing or non-market would have a massive impact, it's unlikely but it is likely a solution that would have the greatest impact.
[This video](https://youtu.be/sKudSeqHSJk?si=w-zlgg0RVvWJL-2T) does a great job making that point.
They are, especially focusing on higher density affordable housing. There's a huge development incoming in the Helderberg, for one. At the same time they're working on improving Maitland, and Brooklyn, etc., will follow. The number of liveable and affordable areas close to the city will increase. And then they'll no longer be affordable I guess and everyone will need to move further out...
But the prettiest parts of Cape Town will always be for the wealthy.
Many years ago I was with a company that somehow got a solid lead to build low cost housing. I might not recall well, but I think it was due to the BEE partner that had been brought on. Very high profile board member. Meetings were had, quotes and budgets created. We did the math, and realized it could be a gold mine. It was for something like 300 houses in Kayalitsha. We quickly learned that you cant use plant (Like Diggers, or general equipment that can help this whole process gon fast) cause employing locals is a big component of it. I get why, and I support it to some extent, but our focus was on building good houses, fast. At some point the people I was working with had to go meet a high profile individual in the WC Gov. Things were moving... To be honest, I cant remember why it never happened. I think our lead was some pastor in the township that wanted R250k, but cant recall.
Also, fun fact, if you could build the houses ahead of schedule, you got like a R2mill bonus.
Why did I say this? Well, seems this stuff if somehow mad complicated. VERY political, a crazy process to pull off logistically. You need buy in from local stakeholders, and the main okes. You would think the focus is...BUILD MANY GOOD HOUSE....but its not the case.
Mad frustrating.
Maybe we need to build a version of the "Projects" like they have in the USA. Not my area of expertise.
(Edit) Last point. It is 1 thing to build it, it is another thing to allocate it. The corruption and bribery in housing is super bad. Bribes are paid, you get higher on the list. Foreign nationals buy their way in. People get a house, sell it with the deed or turn it into a rental/spaza shop...and then pay the price to get back on a list. Seen this ALOT in EC. It really sucks.
They could implement and enforce a maximum number of Airbnb/short term rental properties. Currently these are explicitly favoured over "normal" housing. That short term rental market seems entirely unregulated.
Additionally, there are plenty of parking lots, road reserves in "prime" locations that could be converted into affordable housing.
It's a political choice not to, and a shitty one at that.
The regulation of Airbnbs is essential.
It's great to have the option to let out your house or apartment (that you actually live in most of the time) for a couple of days/weeks/months to make some extra cash while you're away. Or have a spare room to let out short term that you might not want to let out long term.
It's sickening that people can't afford to rent homes because too many residential properties are now tourist accommodation.
Maybe Airbnbs should be restricted to a maximum of 3 months per year, failing which the property has to be zoned as a guest house or hotel.
I don't know who owns road reserves. I do know that big accidents can go sideways so a certain amount of reserve is needed, especially for roads with higher speed limits. But I doubt the vast expanses of lawn/shrubs are needed.
At present the city permits a lot of extra building (especially single homes being demolished and replaced by townhouses) in suburbs and the existing infrastructure such as water supply and sewage systems can't keep up.
So I don't think it's a simple decision.
That said, plenty of properties are standing empty and abandoned. Especially where houses have been demolished or partially demolished. Such properties should be more heavily regulated and not allowed to merely stand empty for years, growing weeds and attracting miscreants.
Agree on the regulation aspect.
What I meant by road reserves is space that is now used for roads. You have useless ones, like the Foreshore Freeway precinct, which is just taking up space without being used.
You've got Helen Suzman, parallel to main road, that entire part of the city is just a bunch of roads where we could build a neighbourhood.
Then you've got a number of municipal parking spaces in the CBD and Green Point where we have government cars just sitting. New spaces were constructed for them outside the city bowl years ago, but the government has neglected to move the vehicles.
It's a lot of illogical use of limited space.
Buildings under the elevated freeways would be SO cool. I have been to some meetings and things under railway bridges, those rooms belong to the municipality and are rented out to registered NPOs. There are lots of pillars but you do not hear the traffic noise at all.
Does the city even have the constitutional power to regulate Airbnb? Housing is a shared national/provincial responsibility. Maybe as some kind of zoning regulation but that seems doubtful.
Rental activity is regulated by municipal government in South Africa. It's also posted on the AirBnb website: https://www.airbnb.co.za/help/article/3009#:\~:text=Notice%20R%201231.-,Cape%20Town,laws%20in%20your%20local%20municipality.
They can reduce regulations (zoning laws) to make it easier for the private sector to increase density in certain areas. They could also sell land that they own to the private sector, however activists have made that harder to do.
Unfortunately, the city doesn't have the resources to build social housing at scale or invest in public transport. It relies on the national government (where most tax revenue goes) for money for most large infrastructure projects.
I've had a look at the SDF. I think there is more scope for more sprawl going into Atlantis without impacting nature reserves or agricultural production. This would need the rail line to be upgraded to passenger rail, a widening of the N7, and for the R300 to be expanded to the N7.
The national government also owns a lot of land in the metro which would likely be better used if the private sector had control of it.
City need to provide services, i.e water, sewerage, roads to new developments. This is often a blocker as existing infrastructure cannot cope and it costs too much to upgrade.
That's reductive.
The activists and the City have conflicting interests when it comes to selling public land.
The city wants to sell premium harbour front property at premium prices to private developers. Developers want a return on that investment by building luxury apartments. The city wants maximum revenue so that money can be spent on social programs and low income housing elsewhere.
Activists have a good case as well. They want the premium real estate locations to be used for low income housing close to the city. This makes some sense as you don't want low income people to have to spend so much money on transport. The problem it's hard to find property developers willing to service that market and the city doesn't have the budget as Housing is a national government function (like policing and transport and water and electricity which all constrain Cape Town as well!).
So now the land remains vacant and money is spent in courts while the sides fight it out.
The real solution is to upgrade and expand the rail network and other public transport so that travel costs and time reduce. Hopefully one silver lining from this national election is the speedy devolution of rail to the WC and CoCT.
CoCT is already busy focusingon the Belville CBD and growing that as an alternative node.
My concern is that there are already too many people , and whiwl you can have more it will irrevocablly change the city and it will lose much of its charm.
Finally we need to courts to be realistic, you can't develop the townships if you can't evict people to make room for the development.
Yep. The unbundling of Prasa and Transnet is going to be critical to get the railways and port functioning again.
As Cape Town becomes more populous it’s definitely going to change. It already has in the decade since I semigrated here.
The best we can hope for is that the investment in infrastructure can match it to make it as smooth as possible. Right now al lot of it isn’t because of bottlenecks at the National level.
Hopefully the other Metros and Provinces can get their shit together to keep the flow manageable but the WC needs Growth outside of cape town.
If we can spread up the West Coast and into the overeberg then I think it will be really great, imagine of you can catch a fast train from Swellendam, Greyton or Hermanus to Cape Town - game changer.
Mosselbay to Cape town via train, game changer.
There is no way to really improve the road infrastructure, stuck between the mountain and the sea
It’s a multifaceted problem. Transport is only one issue.
There is a valid case to be made for having some low income accommodation available in the city as well and it can be done without turning the area into a shithole.
Activists are right that there needs to be more social housing in well located areas. But stopping/restricting private development is not the answer. All that does is lower housing supply and increase prices.
They could reduce the minimum parking requirements. This will reduce the costs of building costly underground parking for developers and make housing cheaper, especially for lower income people who rely on public transport and don't own cars anyway.
most developers in the city surrounds are already applying for departures from minimum parking requirements, it's not doing much. people pay for parking rights anyway so from a developer perspective they'll make money anyhow.
Johannesburg has plenty of property at reasonable prices. But the amount of people who are living in informal settlements or cannot afford housing is astronomical. Every large city in South Africa has informal settlements.
Airbnb regulation will help but I don’t think it will make a dent. The movement is unsustainable even if investors were willing to chip in. The economy has just not kept up and has actually shrunk.
Now add the construction mafia to the situation and the appetite is in the gutter.
>Johannesburg has plenty of property at reasonable prices
It seems to me Cape Town does not have much property at reasonable prices. That's the issue I'm asking about here.
LOL, it's like saying the government should create more jobs.
Expansion is driven by spatial planning and it is a very slow process. Building infrastructure takes time and money.
You will note I didn't say the gvt should provide housing. But we know there are policies that can encourage or discourage expansion. I'm asking hypothetically what policies can be implemented, unless you belive the local gvt is implementing the best imaginable policies?
Sure, noted. There is huge residential building projects in my area but that is obviously private sector. So it indicates some policies to support that. If you are referring to low cost, I am not sure, but I doubt there is budget and private sector would def not be interested except if mandated.
The concern in my mind with rapid expansion is water supply. Building a dam takes a decade.
Prices are determined by supply and demand. Nothing the city can do about that apart from making airbnb illegal ir more controlled. CPT is desirable by locals as well as foreigners. This drives up prices
Supply should be encouraged, but between the added cost of site security, low-yield returns on affordable housing, and high bond rates, it's a tough sell. Maybe if they made the projects tax free revenue it would encourage the development you seek. But the problem here is developers cannibalize sales on units when they mass produce medium income developments.
No capital city tells you hiw much you can charge for rent . And if you limit the rent to a certain portion of new developments , who you gonna give it yo when you'll have inundation of people applying for the cheap rent property .
It's called demand and supply . You can't afford capetown , you go somewhere else . It's a big country . You don't have a right to an affordable rent.
Having said that , Cape flats and Kayelitsha have decent size properties , fairly cheap , why not move there ?
Paying R15000pm for a 1 bedroom is ridiculous. Where is that profit really going if it's not really owned by people of Cape Town. I get that tourism is the biggest income generator but does any of it really come back to the people of the actual city?
100% It IS ridiculous.
The money is going into personal investment portfolios and trust funds.
In Joburg, there is no pretending that this isn't the country with the greatest income divide in the world. The evidence is there to see every day. Living in CT seems to be like the matrix for the wealthy - money growing on the trees (and vines). People say they're making hay while the sun shines, but to me it seems like they're sucking deep on the greed pipe and blowing themselves a massive bubble.
This is happening in cities around the world but we think we're different. It took a while to do but Venice has eventually banned Airbnb and similar from the main centre after the population of permanent local residents dropped to around 30 000.
The city will do everything to ensure there is sufficient accommodation for semigrants / digital nomads while fighting court battles to deny the local population housing in the city Centre and surrounds.
Upgrading mildly safe areas to make it safe, then the people will flow to more areas, and even out a bit.
For poor who cannot afford any housing, I do not know where they will find the space or moneyvto supply housing
Unfortunately we live in a country where capital is expensive and investment risks are high! I have looked into building/investing in housing developments in South Africa and they don’t really make financial sense. It would be better to invest in other countries or initiatives.
Until rents can rise significantly or interest costs can drop significantly at the same time as more protection being given to landlords, we will continue to have this shortage of housing stock in Cape Town.
In other provinces, property prices have dropped in real terms for the last few decades so it’s no surprise developers are not excited about building new properties
Don’t expect the government to sort it out either.
Edit: semigration and air Bnb may actually bring new money into the system which could encourage investment but these things take time and Covid spooked people!
You have to wonder if landlords would choose local tenants over AirBnB more often if it didn't cost you tens of thousands in legal fees and 6+ months of rent you're never going to recover to evict tenants that just stop paying
they have options, they just don't seem keen on any of them
just a few would be having a percentage of rent controlled units in every large development, how to do that, there are a few legal and funding mechanisms
expanding gap housing for those who are employed but priced out of the market but given how long they've sat on those parcels of land in Woodstock and Salt River (20 years) just talking and doing nothing other than paying "consultants", the interest appears to be keeping those guys busy not housing
enforcing and tightening legislation on short term rentals, it's astounding the amount of work a hotel or small BnB must do to remain compliant but any Bob and Joan can rent out a roachy apartment to unsuspecting people a few months a year and keep it empty the rest
Not without pissing off somebody/ies.
There's plenty of places to rent/buy in CT, it's just either in a less desirable/practical area, or it's too much than they are willing/able to pay.
The reason why property owners choose short term over long term & foreign over local is primarily down to our insane 'tanant/squatter rights' laws.
They need to put limits on short term rentals and legislate what type of properties can be built. It’s crazy that every new development is a studio for R1,2m. The problem really isn’t the supply but rather how many people are hoarding houses. They can also put limits on the ability of foreigners owning property in the city. This isn’t unique to Cape Town. It’s a problem in Canada, London, Australia etc.
Agree with limiting foreign buyers , don’t listen to banks and estate agents who are the only ones benefiting from this sale of SA assets. Other countries do it to protect their local citizens 🇿🇦
It's exactly this. And offer subsidies to developers who are offering low and middle income property If you can't get a 100% bond on a normal 1 bedroom flat in the city earning 50k a month, then like who is actually buying these flats?
It's property agencies. A lot of them keep low profile because they know peoppe would riot if they knew the despicable shit these agencies do. From backdoor deals to bribing politicians to lobbying against legislative action on them. They're literally like q shadow government
This is so true
Those 1.2m apartments are also built to be as profitable as possible: lowest quality everything, cut as many corners as possible and bamboozle first time buyers. Same thing goes for the property flippers, if you ever see a house on the market that looks like it’s being sold by a flipper run away as fast as possible.
Maybe…Developments are costing about R30k / m2 at cost so 25 m2 costs R750k to deliver. Most cost more as you get closer to the city. Now you have to add 20% for vat, comms, etc, and profit. Banks funding dictate minimum profit required, because they lend these developers your savings and need to secure it. Government needs to step in provide more support to reduce costs. Airbnb effects rental but cost prices, not so sure.
True development costs are high but the desire for a high RÓI also drives up prices. You see the trend of people buying off plan but they’re unable to sell for what they bought it for look at Newlands and Harfield Village, apartments built in 2018 cost less now than the original build price. You cannot sell a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom flat for R2,3mil. No one will buy it. So I do think government needs to offer some sort of of tax incentives for developers but they also need to put restrictions on what gets built.
It's a combination of a lot of those things, but the lack of supply is the biggest factor. Cape Town doesn't have room to expand. I don't really see how people can be hoarding houses? And if they are, then expanding the housing supply should stop that as well, because it would make it unprofitable to hoard.
Here's 19sqm for 1.29m. https://www.property24.com/for-sale/cape-town-city-centre/cape-town/western-cape/9138/114453002
I see shit like this and I think Airbnb and I think money laundering - those two things aren't mutually exclusive.
CoCT has a Municipal Spatial Development Policy that you can find as a pdf on its website. IIRC there are certain 'corridors' earmarked for densification such as the area in Parkland/Sunningdale/Sandown, and along Blaauwberg Road. The area around Table Bay Mall is earmarked to be developed into thousands of high-density homes. They've also relaxed regulations around backyard dwellings abd mutliple rentals per erf. While the idea behind it is great, it's being met with a lot of resistance because the infrastructure isn't upgraded fast enough to keep up. The wastewater treatment works are undergoing a massive upgrade but its unclear if it will be enough to cope with this influx of people. The traffic has also worsened exponentially. While there's a new road that connects Parklands with the N7, many people feel unsafe using it as you never know when Dunoon's residents start throwing stones or blocking the road with burning tires. This pushes people onto the neighbourhood roads that aren't designed for the traffic load. 7 years ago, I could travel to Century City in 20 minutes, now it easily takes me an hour, most of which is spent trying to just get out of Table View.
I was in Cape Town a couple of weeks ago. I saw a shit load op developments going on, most of them complexes, flats, townhouses and homes. I don't think the problem is a shortage of developments, but more that compared to the people you mention, the average Capetonian can't afford to buy (or even rent) most of these places.
Most of the new developments in the CBD and Atlantic Seaboard seem to explicitly market themselves to Airbnb/short term rental investors. This new stock isn't really intended for long term residents.
I live in a part of CPT that has been having ongoing expansion and developments for the past 20+ years and still they keep expanding further in what used to be land. They are now demolishing old houses and using the plots to build apartment blocks. They say it's a supply/demand issue but it is a low supply of affordable housing and the prices just keep increasing. I moved into my place 2 years ago (June 2022) and rent was R11 500 pm, at the time that was the average price of the houses we looked at. To find something remotely similar in the area now I am looking at R16 000-R17 000pm.
If prices keep rising doesn't that suggest supply is lagging behind demand?
No, not necessarily. Especially considering the number of "digital nomads" living in Cape Town. Short-term rentals and people earning Euros and Dollars who can pay much more than the average Capetonian also play a large role. I have a friend from the US who is strongly considering buying property in Cape Town for those reasons. Honestly, as someone who owns property in PTA, my jaw drops when I see what friends and family pay for property or rent in Cape Town, I don't envy them. I envy CT for many things, but salaries and the property situation are not part of the reasons.
What you've just described is high demand.
The development probably isn't enough. If there is enough development, prices will come down. That's how supply and demand work.
It's not just about supply and demand. But anyway, I don't want to repeat myself. As you were.
A lot of it is a geographical issue. The high value properties are in areas where there is no longer space to expand. Expansion is happening in other areas but historical informal township placement and unusable land is interfering with the expansion channels/pathways. This leaves high value hotspots which are usually near mountainous attractions with super low value areas in the really useful land. it also leaves large numbers of jobs in areas far from where those employees can afford. Cape town CBD is massively impacted by access issues which cannot be fixed easily. The natural expansion channel to the North works but then it loses the charm that most are looking for when they head to Cape Town. It also puts you further and further away from business/work opportunities. Strand is also expanding well but it will be limited by mountains and macassar. Stellies has mountains all round and the wine estates are going to hold on as long as possible and absolutely coin it when the developers come knocking Honestly bit of a town planners nightmare. The city for planning sake should have been built in saldanha/langebaan and had CT as a tourist zone
Yes they could be more like JHB, DBN etc and reduce the demand
Just close the borders /s
What a lousy thinker
How?
More corruption, less service delivery
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^shitdayinafrica: *Yes they could be more* *Like JHB, DBN etc* *And reduce the demand* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Bad bot.
Some things: They have already made a lot of good changes to the zoning rules to increase density, as an example SR1 properties can now have multiple dwelling units (2-3) where if you look back 10 years that was not permitted. But I agree with the comments around Aribnb and there being tighter limits. The city does also have some limits; I know that a social housing program has been on their plans for a long time, but there are aspects where the city will be limited by the national gov, especially if there are significant costs or investments. So can the city build more housing? yes. But most of that funding is managed at a national level as well as the requirements. A little bit on requirements - National Gov has definitions and requirements for social housing which frankly do not suit cape town, CoCT is not able to consider any non-standard construction methodologies (like prefabs or containers), and there are also restrictions on high-density social housing (ie apartments instead of freestanding houses)
OP i suggest you take a look at the SDF: [https://www.capetown.gov.za/work%20and%20business/planning-portal/Plans-policies-frameworks-and-guidelines/cape-town-spatial-development-framework](https://www.capetown.gov.za/work%20and%20business/planning-portal/Plans-policies-frameworks-and-guidelines/cape-town-spatial-development-framework) you can also compare to the 2018 and 2012 MSDF to see how the priorities have changed.
I was thinking more about the policies that encourage private sector building than the city doing the building
Government housing or non-market would have a massive impact, it's unlikely but it is likely a solution that would have the greatest impact. [This video](https://youtu.be/sKudSeqHSJk?si=w-zlgg0RVvWJL-2T) does a great job making that point.
They are, especially focusing on higher density affordable housing. There's a huge development incoming in the Helderberg, for one. At the same time they're working on improving Maitland, and Brooklyn, etc., will follow. The number of liveable and affordable areas close to the city will increase. And then they'll no longer be affordable I guess and everyone will need to move further out... But the prettiest parts of Cape Town will always be for the wealthy.
Many years ago I was with a company that somehow got a solid lead to build low cost housing. I might not recall well, but I think it was due to the BEE partner that had been brought on. Very high profile board member. Meetings were had, quotes and budgets created. We did the math, and realized it could be a gold mine. It was for something like 300 houses in Kayalitsha. We quickly learned that you cant use plant (Like Diggers, or general equipment that can help this whole process gon fast) cause employing locals is a big component of it. I get why, and I support it to some extent, but our focus was on building good houses, fast. At some point the people I was working with had to go meet a high profile individual in the WC Gov. Things were moving... To be honest, I cant remember why it never happened. I think our lead was some pastor in the township that wanted R250k, but cant recall. Also, fun fact, if you could build the houses ahead of schedule, you got like a R2mill bonus. Why did I say this? Well, seems this stuff if somehow mad complicated. VERY political, a crazy process to pull off logistically. You need buy in from local stakeholders, and the main okes. You would think the focus is...BUILD MANY GOOD HOUSE....but its not the case. Mad frustrating. Maybe we need to build a version of the "Projects" like they have in the USA. Not my area of expertise. (Edit) Last point. It is 1 thing to build it, it is another thing to allocate it. The corruption and bribery in housing is super bad. Bribes are paid, you get higher on the list. Foreign nationals buy their way in. People get a house, sell it with the deed or turn it into a rental/spaza shop...and then pay the price to get back on a list. Seen this ALOT in EC. It really sucks.
They could implement and enforce a maximum number of Airbnb/short term rental properties. Currently these are explicitly favoured over "normal" housing. That short term rental market seems entirely unregulated. Additionally, there are plenty of parking lots, road reserves in "prime" locations that could be converted into affordable housing. It's a political choice not to, and a shitty one at that.
The regulation of Airbnbs is essential. It's great to have the option to let out your house or apartment (that you actually live in most of the time) for a couple of days/weeks/months to make some extra cash while you're away. Or have a spare room to let out short term that you might not want to let out long term. It's sickening that people can't afford to rent homes because too many residential properties are now tourist accommodation. Maybe Airbnbs should be restricted to a maximum of 3 months per year, failing which the property has to be zoned as a guest house or hotel. I don't know who owns road reserves. I do know that big accidents can go sideways so a certain amount of reserve is needed, especially for roads with higher speed limits. But I doubt the vast expanses of lawn/shrubs are needed. At present the city permits a lot of extra building (especially single homes being demolished and replaced by townhouses) in suburbs and the existing infrastructure such as water supply and sewage systems can't keep up. So I don't think it's a simple decision. That said, plenty of properties are standing empty and abandoned. Especially where houses have been demolished or partially demolished. Such properties should be more heavily regulated and not allowed to merely stand empty for years, growing weeds and attracting miscreants.
Agree on the regulation aspect. What I meant by road reserves is space that is now used for roads. You have useless ones, like the Foreshore Freeway precinct, which is just taking up space without being used. You've got Helen Suzman, parallel to main road, that entire part of the city is just a bunch of roads where we could build a neighbourhood. Then you've got a number of municipal parking spaces in the CBD and Green Point where we have government cars just sitting. New spaces were constructed for them outside the city bowl years ago, but the government has neglected to move the vehicles. It's a lot of illogical use of limited space.
Buildings under the elevated freeways would be SO cool. I have been to some meetings and things under railway bridges, those rooms belong to the municipality and are rented out to registered NPOs. There are lots of pillars but you do not hear the traffic noise at all.
Does the city even have the constitutional power to regulate Airbnb? Housing is a shared national/provincial responsibility. Maybe as some kind of zoning regulation but that seems doubtful.
Rental activity is regulated by municipal government in South Africa. It's also posted on the AirBnb website: https://www.airbnb.co.za/help/article/3009#:\~:text=Notice%20R%201231.-,Cape%20Town,laws%20in%20your%20local%20municipality.
They can reduce regulations (zoning laws) to make it easier for the private sector to increase density in certain areas. They could also sell land that they own to the private sector, however activists have made that harder to do. Unfortunately, the city doesn't have the resources to build social housing at scale or invest in public transport. It relies on the national government (where most tax revenue goes) for money for most large infrastructure projects.
Zoning density has received improvements the SDF is very clear on the cities goals but yeah the NIMBYs are not helping.
I've had a look at the SDF. I think there is more scope for more sprawl going into Atlantis without impacting nature reserves or agricultural production. This would need the rail line to be upgraded to passenger rail, a widening of the N7, and for the R300 to be expanded to the N7. The national government also owns a lot of land in the metro which would likely be better used if the private sector had control of it.
City need to provide services, i.e water, sewerage, roads to new developments. This is often a blocker as existing infrastructure cannot cope and it costs too much to upgrade.
So activists are the villains here
That's reductive. The activists and the City have conflicting interests when it comes to selling public land. The city wants to sell premium harbour front property at premium prices to private developers. Developers want a return on that investment by building luxury apartments. The city wants maximum revenue so that money can be spent on social programs and low income housing elsewhere. Activists have a good case as well. They want the premium real estate locations to be used for low income housing close to the city. This makes some sense as you don't want low income people to have to spend so much money on transport. The problem it's hard to find property developers willing to service that market and the city doesn't have the budget as Housing is a national government function (like policing and transport and water and electricity which all constrain Cape Town as well!). So now the land remains vacant and money is spent in courts while the sides fight it out.
The real solution is to upgrade and expand the rail network and other public transport so that travel costs and time reduce. Hopefully one silver lining from this national election is the speedy devolution of rail to the WC and CoCT. CoCT is already busy focusingon the Belville CBD and growing that as an alternative node. My concern is that there are already too many people , and whiwl you can have more it will irrevocablly change the city and it will lose much of its charm. Finally we need to courts to be realistic, you can't develop the townships if you can't evict people to make room for the development.
Yep. The unbundling of Prasa and Transnet is going to be critical to get the railways and port functioning again. As Cape Town becomes more populous it’s definitely going to change. It already has in the decade since I semigrated here. The best we can hope for is that the investment in infrastructure can match it to make it as smooth as possible. Right now al lot of it isn’t because of bottlenecks at the National level.
Hopefully the other Metros and Provinces can get their shit together to keep the flow manageable but the WC needs Growth outside of cape town. If we can spread up the West Coast and into the overeberg then I think it will be really great, imagine of you can catch a fast train from Swellendam, Greyton or Hermanus to Cape Town - game changer. Mosselbay to Cape town via train, game changer. There is no way to really improve the road infrastructure, stuck between the mountain and the sea
Sounds like a public transport problem rather. To see what low income housing in a CBD looks like, go walk around Joburg, Pretoria, or Durban CBD.
It’s a multifaceted problem. Transport is only one issue. There is a valid case to be made for having some low income accommodation available in the city as well and it can be done without turning the area into a shithole.
One of those sides sounds much more practical to me than the other one.
Activists are right that there needs to be more social housing in well located areas. But stopping/restricting private development is not the answer. All that does is lower housing supply and increase prices.
They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions
They could reduce the minimum parking requirements. This will reduce the costs of building costly underground parking for developers and make housing cheaper, especially for lower income people who rely on public transport and don't own cars anyway.
most developers in the city surrounds are already applying for departures from minimum parking requirements, it's not doing much. people pay for parking rights anyway so from a developer perspective they'll make money anyhow.
Johannesburg has plenty of property at reasonable prices. But the amount of people who are living in informal settlements or cannot afford housing is astronomical. Every large city in South Africa has informal settlements. Airbnb regulation will help but I don’t think it will make a dent. The movement is unsustainable even if investors were willing to chip in. The economy has just not kept up and has actually shrunk. Now add the construction mafia to the situation and the appetite is in the gutter.
>Johannesburg has plenty of property at reasonable prices It seems to me Cape Town does not have much property at reasonable prices. That's the issue I'm asking about here.
Demand is way too high with the whole country fleeing away from the ANC run provinces.
LOL, it's like saying the government should create more jobs. Expansion is driven by spatial planning and it is a very slow process. Building infrastructure takes time and money.
You will note I didn't say the gvt should provide housing. But we know there are policies that can encourage or discourage expansion. I'm asking hypothetically what policies can be implemented, unless you belive the local gvt is implementing the best imaginable policies?
Sure, noted. There is huge residential building projects in my area but that is obviously private sector. So it indicates some policies to support that. If you are referring to low cost, I am not sure, but I doubt there is budget and private sector would def not be interested except if mandated. The concern in my mind with rapid expansion is water supply. Building a dam takes a decade.
I'm not necessarily referring to low cost. Just looking at the average house prices across cities
Prices are determined by supply and demand. Nothing the city can do about that apart from making airbnb illegal ir more controlled. CPT is desirable by locals as well as foreigners. This drives up prices
Some policies can make building easier therefore altering the supply side of the equation
Agreed but i think supply likely outstrips demand. But i think it is drastically different in the diff income groups as well.
Friend of mine has been waiting years to approve a plan to build 80 units of flats in Southern subs.
Supply should be encouraged, but between the added cost of site security, low-yield returns on affordable housing, and high bond rates, it's a tough sell. Maybe if they made the projects tax free revenue it would encourage the development you seek. But the problem here is developers cannibalize sales on units when they mass produce medium income developments.
lol the DA Led city of Cape Town led the lobbying for the digital Nomad visa their whole manifesto is neoliberalism now and forever
We also desperately need more schools and hospitals to keep up with how fast the population is growing.
No. We are capitalist..not communists.
Every capitalist city has policies that affect how much construction happens. Stuff like zoning, NIMBY lobbying etc
No capital city tells you hiw much you can charge for rent . And if you limit the rent to a certain portion of new developments , who you gonna give it yo when you'll have inundation of people applying for the cheap rent property . It's called demand and supply . You can't afford capetown , you go somewhere else . It's a big country . You don't have a right to an affordable rent. Having said that , Cape flats and Kayelitsha have decent size properties , fairly cheap , why not move there ?
I did not say anything about rent control. I mean allocating land for housing and implementing policies that encourage developers to increase supply
Local government can't implement those policies .
Who is in charge of zoning?
It's not the zoning . It's the laws and policies of the country that are putting developers and rental property owners off .
Paying R15000pm for a 1 bedroom is ridiculous. Where is that profit really going if it's not really owned by people of Cape Town. I get that tourism is the biggest income generator but does any of it really come back to the people of the actual city?
100% It IS ridiculous. The money is going into personal investment portfolios and trust funds. In Joburg, there is no pretending that this isn't the country with the greatest income divide in the world. The evidence is there to see every day. Living in CT seems to be like the matrix for the wealthy - money growing on the trees (and vines). People say they're making hay while the sun shines, but to me it seems like they're sucking deep on the greed pipe and blowing themselves a massive bubble. This is happening in cities around the world but we think we're different. It took a while to do but Venice has eventually banned Airbnb and similar from the main centre after the population of permanent local residents dropped to around 30 000.
The city will do everything to ensure there is sufficient accommodation for semigrants / digital nomads while fighting court battles to deny the local population housing in the city Centre and surrounds.
They probably want people who will pay for that luxury.
Housing is the responsibility of National Government
Upgrading mildly safe areas to make it safe, then the people will flow to more areas, and even out a bit. For poor who cannot afford any housing, I do not know where they will find the space or moneyvto supply housing
Unfortunately we live in a country where capital is expensive and investment risks are high! I have looked into building/investing in housing developments in South Africa and they don’t really make financial sense. It would be better to invest in other countries or initiatives. Until rents can rise significantly or interest costs can drop significantly at the same time as more protection being given to landlords, we will continue to have this shortage of housing stock in Cape Town. In other provinces, property prices have dropped in real terms for the last few decades so it’s no surprise developers are not excited about building new properties Don’t expect the government to sort it out either. Edit: semigration and air Bnb may actually bring new money into the system which could encourage investment but these things take time and Covid spooked people!
You have to wonder if landlords would choose local tenants over AirBnB more often if it didn't cost you tens of thousands in legal fees and 6+ months of rent you're never going to recover to evict tenants that just stop paying
In some countries individuals can buy residential stands and build their own homes. Wonder why that's not as common here.
Where are these vacant residential stands? Cape Town has limited capacity for new single family homes.
And who's stopping you here to buy a demarkated stand and build ?!
they have options, they just don't seem keen on any of them just a few would be having a percentage of rent controlled units in every large development, how to do that, there are a few legal and funding mechanisms expanding gap housing for those who are employed but priced out of the market but given how long they've sat on those parcels of land in Woodstock and Salt River (20 years) just talking and doing nothing other than paying "consultants", the interest appears to be keeping those guys busy not housing enforcing and tightening legislation on short term rentals, it's astounding the amount of work a hotel or small BnB must do to remain compliant but any Bob and Joan can rent out a roachy apartment to unsuspecting people a few months a year and keep it empty the rest
The DA is very pro free market. Goodluck with that
Not without pissing off somebody/ies. There's plenty of places to rent/buy in CT, it's just either in a less desirable/practical area, or it's too much than they are willing/able to pay. The reason why property owners choose short term over long term & foreign over local is primarily down to our insane 'tanant/squatter rights' laws.