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Property association survey shows office vacancies on the rise in cities.

Posted On Thursday, 31 October 2002 10:01 Published by
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Pretoria - Office vacancy rates in South Africa's major cities were continuing to rise, according to the latest office vacancy survey conducted by the SA Property Owners' Association, which was released yesterday.
Pretoria - Office vacancy rates in South Africa's major cities were continuing to rise, according to the latest office vacancy survey conducted by the SA Property Owners' Association, which was released yesterday.

The survey showed that vacancy rates rose in 14 of Johannesburg's office nodes in the quarter to September compared with nine months ago.

A similar pattern was evident in other urban areas with vacancy rates increasing in three of
Cape Town's five nodes, two of Durban's four nodes and all eight of Pretoria's nodes.

There was an improvement, however, in the office market in some of the central business districts (CBDs).

The vacancy rate in Johannesburg's CBD rose to 25.8 percent at the end of September this year from 24.1 percent nine months ago, and to 16.1 percent in Pretoria's CBD from 11.9 percent in the same period.

But the vacancy rate in Cape Town's CBD dropped 1 percentage point to 14.9 percent and by almost 2 percentage points in Durban's CBD to 20.7 percent.

Francois Viruly, a property economist at Viruly Consulting, said this week that office market oversupply in decentralised office nodes was affecting vacancy rates, which were still rising.

Erwin Rode, the chief executive of Rode & Associates, a property services company, said this was not the time for speculative development. 'It's a tenant's market for the foreseeable future.

Publisher: Business Report
Source: Business Report
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