THERE has been a dramatic upswing in leasing activity and demand for office space in Cape Town’s decentralised nodes over the past several years and property pundits say certain prime nodes have emerged in the region.
Amdec Property Development says office nodes such as Tokai, Claremont, Tyger Valley and Century City have achieved increased acceptance and status in business communities.
The group says these areas often have two distinct advantages over the central business district (CBD) — they beat rush hour traffic patterns and they provide opportunities for companies to be located in their own buildings of the appropriate size and specification.
Amdec says naming rights have also often been granted to large or single-occupant users.
David Green, MD of Pace Property Group, says the traffic congestion in Cape Town also plays an increasing role in establishing the demand for decentralised office space.
“Even areas such as Somerset West and Tygerburg are attracting a lot of attention from commercial occupiers.
“In addition, newer developments are able to provide better parking facilities than those that are generally available in Cape Town’s centre city,” says Green.
He says decentralised areas have the added advantage of having access to developable land, which allows tenants the opportunity to secure tenant driven developments designed to their specification.
Dave Russell, a director of Baker Street Properties, says there is continued demand for quality offices throughout Cape Town, including in the CBD.
But Russell says the decentralised office nodes such as Rondebosch, Newlands and Claremont have vacancies of less than 2%. He says this means that these established office nodes are “in fact full”.
“Any vacancy level under 5%, the market considers to be a shortage,” he says.
“To give you an interesting statistic in all of the nodes surveyed by (commercial property association Sapoa), the average A-grade office vacancy throughout the Cape is now 2,9%. There is just no space. Quality office space is at a real premium.”
He says the market has seen huge increases in rentals because of a lack of new stock.
Source: Business Day
Publisher: I-Net Bridge
Source: I-Net Bridge
