Is Joburg CBD being turned around as offices converted for affordable housing?

Johannesburg, with all its challenges, remains South Africa's economic hub - and it could be at a fork in the road with better times signposted, is the hopeful outlook of property company Lightstone.

This echoes the view of Andrew Golding, CEO of Pam Golding Properties, who told The Money Show earlier that there's a big shift happening in Jozi's property market, after it had been in the doldrums for a number of years.

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Stephen Grootes asks Lightstone's Managing Executive for Real Estate, Hayley Ivins-Downes, if the Joburg CBD is following the positive trend being seen for suburban properties.

With the local government elections coming up, there's a strong hope that there is an opportunity to turn things around in the city, she says.

"At the back end of last year, we actually started to see Joburg start to pick up a bit on the indices in terms of our house price inflation,which was a good sign after the downturn. So there was a glimmer of hope that the property market was going to start turning and become a little bit more positive again."

At the same time, Ivins-Downes strikes a note of caution in terms of the impact of the Middle East war, particularly looking at an inflation increase which could lead to a hike in interest rates.

When it comes to the Joburg CBD, she highlights that there are pockets of improvement, particularly when it comes to offices being converted for affordable housing.

"We all want to see the CBD flourishing and improving on what it currently looks like... If we could have the office building conversion trend really taking off, I think we would make some great strides."

"There is definitely a market for affordable accommodation in the inner city. Asco is one of the companies that's been doing that, and TUHF as well... It's something we're also seeing in suburbs like Sunnihghill where offices were not being utilised to full capacity when COVID hit."

She highlights the need for affordable housing in the city, particularly in the CBD, with an existing opportunity to create more of this type of accommodation for rental purposes.

Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the full conversation