A surging industrial property market in Cape Town has prompted Old Mutual Investment Group Property Investments to launch the R123m Racecourse Gardens industrial development in Milnerton adjacent to Trade Centre.

The development, in Racecourse Road will consist of 24230m² of warehousing space, with offices.

Marco Bonafede, Old Mutual Investment Group Property Investments’ leasing consultant for Racecourse Gardens, says the strong demand for industrial space in Cape Town was illustrated by the take-up of space at Old Mutual’s Phumelela Park industrial development in Montague Gardens.

Bonafede says the 30000m² Phumelela Park, which was completed in the first quarter of this year, took only two months to “fully let”. “There is awesome demand for space in Cape Town.” This has sparked the Racecourse Gardens development, being done on a speculative basis.

He says there is a “tremendous shortage” of industrial space in Cape Town and all over SA. The industrial property market started began booming two to three years ago, and has been booming ever since. Bonafede expects a “continuous upward trend” for the next five to 10 years.

Racecourse Gardens is the sixth industrial development to be undertaken over the past 18 months in SA’s major centres by Old Mutual Investment Group, says Brent Wiltshire, the group’s property development executive.

The most recently announced projects total R230m, and are under way in Jet Park near OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg.

According to the latest Rode’s Report, which is issued by property economists Rode & Associates, industrial stand values in the Cape Peninsula and Durban more than doubled in the past year.

Business Day