Picture a balmy, blue-skied evening as, cocktail in hand, you settle down to admire the view from your two-storey penthouse overlooking a deep water canal, small craft harbour, and vibrant waterfront node.

It’s the scene that many buyers will be enjoying as the first residential apartments on Durban’s Point Waterfront start to come on-stream in the next few months.

And if you still think that the City of Durban is still the sleepy, seaside town from your childhood summers, it’s time to think again.

“Durban is a leader in nodal and catalytic development, especially as a stimulant for revitalization,” says City of Durban CEO Michael Sutcliffe. “We’re innovative about urban degeneration interventions, and we’ve come up a creative and successful approach to precinct management.”

It’s not just projects like the Point redevelopment that should snare the interest of property managers, developers and investors.

Durban offers some of the most reasonably priced properties in South Africa, although prices are moving upwards fast. The City proactively secured an Urban Development Zone in its downtown, which offers juicy tax incentives for inner city redevelopment. The City’s cost of services is low and the supply is stable, offering broad brand infrastructure.

And of course there’s the Port of Durban, the busiest port in the southern hemisphere and the pivot-point for much of Durban’s booming industrial activity.

The belief that Durban is an unimportant regional market that plays second fiddle to Johannesburg and its decision-makers just doesn’t apply.

“It’s an outdated viewpoint,” says Sutcliffe. “We need to change this perception actively and continue to attract head offices to Durban, but we’re already the country’s main manufacturing hub. National government is focusing investment here. And we’re making progress with focused projects like an ICT hub.”

It’s this vibrant, innovative property market that provides a backdrop to this year’s key meeting-place for players in the South African commercial and industrial property marketplace as Durban plays host to the annual SAPOA Convention.

Held in turn in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town, the Convention is scheduled this year from 17-19 May 2006 at the International Convention Centre in Durban. For further information www.sapoa.

ENDS