After 15 years of living in the city, Gcina Mahlatashana says his three months at the new Brickfields residential complex in Newtown has been his best inner-city-living experience yet.
“In comparison to the buildings I have experienced living in, this is much better,” he says, staring out across the Brickfields car park. “In fact, you cannot even compare them,” he adds, laughing.
“What I find interesting is the changes that are happening in the city. The scariest thing about living in the city was the crime, but now things are changing. Companies like the Johannesburg Housing Company [JHC] are attracting more and more people to live in the city,” says Mahlatashana.
According to the Trafalgar Inner City Report 2005, the city has gained 22 000 residents in the 2004/05 year. The report says “staggering demand” and “attractively low” rentals are the cause of more and more people making the move to the city.
While the JHC, which oversees the Brickfields development and another 20 buildings across the inner city, is catering for the lower- to middle-income earners, a number of developers have sprung up, renovating inner city buildings into apartments for middle- to upper-income residents.
One such developer is Urban Ocean, which owns a stable of 12 buildings including Corner House, The Franklin, Shakespeare House and the CNA building, all currently in varying states of development.
The Trafalgar Inner City Report 2005 says the typical inner-city tenant is a young, single black male who has no private transport and earns less than R3 000 a month. The report says the average tenant plans to rent in the inner city for between one and three years and would ultimately move to a more expensive neighbourhood or into their own home.
JHC spokesperson Dombolo Masilela says that the majority of people who move back into the city are upwardly mobile young people who use the period of affordable rent to set themselves up through the accumulation and purchasing of furniture and eventually owning property.
Masilela says the social-economic fabric of the city is being changed as people with disposable income move back into the city and closer to their workplaces. She says Brickfields will contribute to Newtown becoming a major entertainment, business and residential hub.
Mahlatashana says he loves living in the city as his work is nearby and there is no need for transport. He also enjoys the varied entertainment that can be found practically on his doorstep in the cultural hub of Newtown.
“Newtown is a very cultural and exciting place and it is especially great for all the young people in Johannesburg,” says Mahlatashana.
The JHC currently has no vacancies across all of its 2 000 housing units located in the inner city. The second phase of Brickfields, which consists of a further 200 units, is set for completion in March next year.
More than 50% of all units in JHC’s portfolio are subsidised by the government for people who earn less than R3 500 a month.
The JHC’s cheapest rental unit is in Douglas Rooms, Troyeville, where a single room costs R400 a month, while its most expensive is a three-bedroomed apartment in Brickfields that costs R2 900 a month.
A major factor that has hampered people moving into the city in the past is the deterioration of buildings, with 25% of buildings in the inner city estimated to be in poor condition. A “bad building” is one that has deteriorated to such an extent that the market value is below the outstanding debt owed.
The Johannesburg Property Company’s (JPC) Better Buildings Programme has addressed these problems by offering incentives to those interested in refurbishing bad buildings.
A company that is interested in developing a bad building registers with the JPC and then pursues the building it is interested in. It will then submit a proposal to the JPC regarding its development and maintenance plans for the next five years. If it is accepted the council will write off all outstanding debt on the building and organise the transfer.
In addition to the debt write-off, developers are also enticed through the Urban Development Zone (UDZ) tax incentive scheme, whereby they can deduct 20% of their investment costs from their tax over five years. If the developer builds a new building they can deduct 20% in their first year and 5% for the following 16 years.
Better Buildings manager Geoff Mendelowitz says there are currently 100 buildings that are being turned around, 15 of which are completed or nearing completion. He expects at least half of the 100 buildings to be complete by the end of 2006.
Mendelowitz says the inner-city rejuvenation resulting from the Better Buildings programme is just the tip of the iceberg, with between 200 and 300 additional buildings being renovated as part of what he refers to as the ripple effect.
“People see the new vision of the city and the change in attitude and are getting involved in inner-city development,” says Mendelowitz.
Just down the road from Brickfields, the R150-million Newtown Central Place Project, which will consist of four high-density apartment blocks with a total of 240 units, is to be launched in October. This development caters for the middle- to upper-income groups with units retailing for anything between R300 000 and R2-million.
The Plaza Place on Jeppe Street, a joint venture between Old Mutual Properties and City Property Administration, will consist of 211 flats and will be ready for occupation next year.
Urban Ocean currently has a stable of 12 buildings, one of which is the old Ernst & Young Building on Diagonal Street in Newtown, which has been renamed The Franklin and is expect to be complete by the end of the year, with people moving in early next year.
Urban Ocean spokesperson Katy Essa says of the 135 units that will be built in The Franklin, Urban Ocean has sold 129 at prices ranging between R300 000 and R350 000.
Urban Ocean’s other projects include the old Penmore Towers at 1 Rissik Street, where it has already sold all 36 units for between R290 000 and R350 000, and the recently purchased Shakespeare House and the CNA building, which are set to house a mix of retail, residential, office and parking space.