Download the report here: www.capetownccid.org/about-cci...
__
Released this week, "The State of Cape Town Central City Report: 2015 - A year in review" highlights the continued strength of investment confidence driving the Cape Town CBD, an area that accounts for over 25% of the metropole’s economy and 30% of its workforce.
Published for four years now by the Cape Town Central City Improvement District (CCID,) "The State of Cape Town Central City Report" details more than R8bn of new investment to be made into South Africa’s oldest downtown within the next five years - and provides analysis on the major sectors that are influencing growth in the CBD - from the rollout of accessible and affordable broadband in a pilot project being championed by the City of Cape Town, to the CBD’s ever-increasing night-time economy and residential desirability.
Says Rob Kane, chairperson of the CCID, “The public and private sectors play a huge collaborative role in driving this economy to succeed, evidenced in the billions of rands that have come into the area in both buildings and infrastructure. As a result, we’ve seen the value of property here rise from R6.127bn around 2005 to well over R24bn in just over a decade, and conservatively this is expected to be well over R32bn within five years.
“Over the course of 2015, and since the launch of the report previous to this one [2014 in review] we’ve seen, conservatively, another R1.872bn of investment committed to the CBD.”
Kane explains that this is “conservative” as the costs of some developments announced have not yet been revealed by the developers: “While there is clearly a lot more than this on the cards, we only quote the amounts we can confirm.”
The R1.872bn includes R1.76bn of private investment, and another R112m to be invested by the public sector, largely in upgrades to existing government buildings.
With surveys forming a crucial component of the report, the 2015 edition includes the results of an online business survey conducted with CBD-based enterprises (which revealed that 86% of businesses intended to remain in the area and 30% were thinking of expanding); a formal retail opinion survey (in which 86% expressed their satisfaction of having chosen the CBD as a base for business); and a survey on the popular First Thursdays event in a section that particularly looked at the expanding night-time economy and the opportunities that exist in this sector for supply to meet demand.
Many of these opportunities are also highlighted in the CCID’s annual online residential survey, also contained in the report. The results demonstrated once again that residents in the CBD (the population of which is now estimated to be well in excess of 6,000) have a desire to see retail with longer opening hours beyond 17h00, more delicatessen-type food stores and more restaurants.
Each year the report also highlights different sectors that have been identified as making ever-increasing contributions to the economy of the CBD, with spotlights in this year’s report including the legal sector and creative economies.