Brace for major Inner-city construction
“Please show us the money. Don’t show us a bucket of paint and a brush. We need to know if you have got the money to develop these buildings. Please demonstrate how many job opportunities will be generated during the construction and management phases.”
That is how the Executive Mayor of the City of Johannesburg, Cllr Herman Mashaba, welcomed more than 200 key property players in the new Council Chamber on, 14 August 2018, to share the vision of his legacy project of rejuvenating the inner city.
Mayor Mashaba told property investors and financiers that the City would release 71 inner city properties to the private sector to be consolidated into business spaces, student accommodation, and low-cost housing units.
This is in addition to 13 buildings that had already been offered to the private sector earlier.
“You don’t have to invest a cent upfront for the buildings, so already you’re ahead of the guys in Sandton, as long as you can meet our requirements,” said Mayor Mashaba, who also promised that the City would release 50 to 100 buildings annually for development for mixed use, low-income commercial and residential properties in the inner city.
“We want to bring work closer to home. People shouldn’t have to travel 80kms to get to work, or see their children once a month due to lack of low cost accommodation and affordability, they should have a choice,” said the mayor, who mentioned that he saw his domestic worker mother once a month.
The requirements that investors, who will know by 30 November 2018 if they have been granted 50-year leases, include that they have a clean credit record with the municipality in their personal and corporate capacities, must train young residents of Joburg as artisan, and offer affordable family and student accommodation.
The City is facing a housing crisis. It has been for years. It is faced with an estimated housing unit backlog of 300 000.
More than 150 000 people are still on the housing waiting list, with thousands more living in the City’s 200 informal settlements.
Member of the Mayoral Committee for Economic Development Cllr Leah Knott said investors would receive incentives in order to make the partnership between the City of Joburg and the private sector work. These include the establishment of a fast-tracking committee for town-planning issues, Urban Development Zone incentives, rates and taxes holiday during construction phase and staggered discounted rental and rates incentive for social landlords and the inclusionary housing incentive.
