Chris van Gass

Cape Correspondent

CAPE TOWN — Reversing the economic decline in Cape Town has been helped by a cumulative investment of more than R9,1bn in the past five years, the Cape Town Partnership said yesterday.

Andrew Boraine, CE of the partnership, a joint venture between the city and organised business, said yesterday that the project to rejuvenate the city centre had been successful in not only retaining existing businesses, but also attracted more businesses to the city.

The R9,1bn covered the capital value of current leases, new developments, investment purchases, upgrades and the renewal of existing buildings, according to the latest survey commissioned by the partnership.

Another key measure of the city centre’s performance was the number of residential conversions, of which there were 29 in recent years.

The demand for office rentals in the city centre showed a "significant" jump for the first time in many years, the partnership’s most recent survey showed.

With the increased demand came a hike in rent prices. The average cost of renting A-grade office space went from R43/m² in 1994 to R75/m² in 2005.

The average prime retail rental increased from R70/m² in 1999 to R250/m² this year.

At the same time there was a decrease in commercial vacancies, which this year stood at 9%, — the lowest it has been in 10 years. By comparison, vacancies in Durban stood at 16% and were at 25% in Johannesburg.

Although there had been a decrease in retail vacancies, with only 14 shops vacant out of 980, there had been a marked shift in the number of black-owned shops, which stood at 300.

However, 200 shops were still being used for storage and informal retail.

In the residential sector, 340 units were made available in 1999, jumping to 840 units last year with 2340 units expected to be built and transferred by 2006.

The average selling price of the units was R1m.

The survey indicated that up to 90% of the units had been sold to Capetonians and that 75% were owner-occupiers.

A further "good" economic indicator for the city centre was that an additional 1100 hotel rooms had been added.

With all the construction under way in the city, the multiplier effect has shown that this had sustained 39000 construction jobs.