According to Carl Chapman of Galetti Commercial & Industrial in Cape Town, " The reality of higher office rentals seems to be effecting not only start-ups but also more established businesses which have become more concerned with reducing operating costs and less concerned with their exact location".

According to Chapman, this trend is likely to continue, " It seems that there is a growing demand for commercial space in area's such as Paarden Island and Montague Gardens where it is still possible to reduce rentals by 30% to 50% yet still have good access to Cape Town CBD and the Harbour. Several of our larger private developers have already realised this trend and have been investigating converting well situated industrial space into office space".

According to Mark Meyer, of Galetti's Gauteng office, there is a similar trend in certain areas of Gauteng. "The situation in Gauteng is quite different to Cape Town in that there is still a substantial amount of affordable office space in Jhb CBD as well as Pretoria CBD. However", comments Meyer "it's often difficult for smaller businesses that need to be near Sandton CBD to find suitable affordable office space. As a result we have had increased interest for office space in Area's such as Kramerville and Kelvin, typically from businesses which one would not normally associate with an industrial area".

While the demand for office space in Cape Town and Sandton still remains reasonably strong, for those companies that need to operate nearby yet are coming under increasing operational cost pressure, relocating to nearby industrial area's may well prove to be a solution.