In the case of the refurbishment of existing properties, the full cost of refurbishment can be written off over 5 years at 20% per year under these incentives.

Secondly, where new buildings are built in these areas, the full cost can be written off over 17 years on the following basis: 20% in year one, and 5% per year for the next 16 years.

The urban areas earmarked for tax breaks are Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Durban, East London, Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg, Kimberley, Nelspruit, Pietermartzburg, Polokwane, Port Elizabeth, Pretoria, Welkom and Witbank.

On the day of Mr Manuel’s address, several buildings in Johannesburg’s CBD were auctioned, some of them for as little as 5% to 10% of their replacement cost.

According to Mr Ian Slot, chairman of Seeff Western Cape’s Licensees, “these tax incentives go a long way to contributing to favourable investment environments in the earmarked areas, but only if developers, investors and agencies take up that challenge and start doing some homework.

“Mr Manuel’s steps contain an implicit commitment to address problems of bureaucracy and lack of capacity at local government level. It is up to agencies, developers and investors to hold local government to these national plans.

“We are ideally positioned as an agency network to add substantial value to urban renewal projects and new developments alike. We play a multifaceted role. All Seeff’s offices give our developers the full benefit of intimate area and market knowledge, so as to be able to offer products that are appropriate to the market’s demand and pricing requirements.

“To ensure a successful marketing and sales campaign, we prefer where possible to be a part of the whole process.

“As a direct result of this approah, 20 out of 22 lofts released by us in December 2002 in a building in Cape Town’s CBD were sold in a matter of weeks.

“We did a lot of research into the area, taking into consideration business confidence, day and night parking, access control, traffic patterns and public transport, infrastructure and so on.

“The building falls within a Central Improvement District (CID), and there are a number of established upmarket eateries, galleries, museums and A-grade office buildings close by.

“We worked hard to communicate features and benefits to our clients, within the context of lofts as a lifestyle choice, their lock-up-and-go convenience, and urban renewal as a worldwide trend.

“It is imperative to be able to demonstrate to buyers that they are getting value. This applies as much to the luxury home buyer as it does to the entry-level purchaser.”