The message was well-received by more than 130 members of the local branch of the SA Property Owners' Association (Sapoa) at its inaugural gala dinner and excellence awards late last week.

Nedbank Cape region property finance new business manager Richard Edwards said despite increases in interest rates, the property market was likely to show the same resilience as when "interest rates were sitting at around 20% and we came through that relatively unscathed".

The resilience had been shown by the bank's Cape region property finance division, which includes the Eastern Cape, now having total assets exceeding R11-billion for the first time.

"This is an annualised growth of 34% since the beginning of 2007. In the first nine months, we approved some R8,7-billion in new commercial property loans."

Indications now were "that we will approve in excess of R10-billion in new loans by the end of this year". Edwards said the bank believed that growth could be sustained, particularly in commercial, industrial and retail property investments and developments .

"This has resulted in strong demand for industrial land ? so much so that prices have increased by a couple of hundred per cent in many areas in a very short space of time."

Of the Eastern Cape, Edwards said that "importantly, and especially so for the region, is the fact that many of our top developers and investors have started looking in the smaller metropoles and towns for opportunity".

Saturation, land prices, scarcity of land and high building costs had made commercial property investments less attractive in bigger centres.

Sapoa award winners were:

 Industrial and commercial refurbishment: Schol Property Consulting for Sunridge Village, with Bird Street Property Trust commended for their Old Mutual building in Central.

 New industrial and commercial building: Stucken Group and Maritime Motors for their building on William Moffett, with the Coega Development Corporation and Acoustex and Dynamics commended for their industrial development zone building.

 Residential buildings or township developments: Auspex Properties for Brookes View, with Davau Properties commended for the Madison on First development.