The decision by eThekwini Municipality to “revamp” its policy on managing its property portfolio, allowing unused property to be released quicker to developers, has attracted more than R2 billion in investment and will create thousands of jobs.
eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda on Thursday revealed that the decision by the council to pro-actively release property that the council was not intending to use was paying dividends.
He was addressing delegates at a property conference at the Durban International Convention Centre on Thursday.
Kaunda said: “As part of our efforts to transform the property market in eThekwini Municipality, we have embarked on a programme of using our property portfolio to attract new investment and to enable those who were deliberately excluded from participating meaningfully in this economic sector.”
He said this initiative follows the development of a Proactive Land Release Strategy that was adopted by the council in 2021.
“The purpose of the strategy was to change the historic way of doing things, which meant we always waited for people to come and apply for land before we commenced with the process to assess if that property was required to provide a basic municipal service,” said the mayor.
He said that reactive process used to take up to four years and as a result, the City had released less than 10 properties from 2010 to 2020.
He said the second part of the Proactive Land Release Strategy was to adopt a clear position on giving preference to black people.
“We are now able to release properties on a quarterly basis. Our process takes up to a maximum period of 12 months from assessment to council approval,” said Kaunda.
He said through this proactive way of doing things, they have managed to release 25 properties in one year (2021-2022), and have managed to achieve several objectives.
He said through this proactive way of doing things, they had managed to release 25 properties in one year (2021-2022), and achieved several objectives.
They made 13 awards to black-owned companies of which 10 awards were made to 100% African-owned companies. They also awarded two properties located on the beachfront.
He said over R2.2 billion is the total investment to be made by successful bidders adding this will lead to the creation of 5 176 jobs to be created during construction and 1 319 permanent jobs after construction.
Kaunda said over R1.8bn is the total rental income payable to the municipality over the lease period for all leases.
The mayor urged some of the organs of state that own properties within the municipal jurisdiction to follow suit and release some of these properties for redevelopment.
City manager Musa Mbhele said property was the base for wealth generation and those who have cannot risk a situation where those who do not have it are “ looking through the window saying there they ( the wealthy) are.”
Mbhele said it was important to move with speed and direction when engaging property development.
He said around 2015, government departments had gathered to discuss the development of the Centrum site in the CBD.
He added that close to R800 million had been raised to develop the site but too much time was spent discussing the project that the opportunity to develop the site was lost.
The Mercury