There have been very few Sales of industrial property in Cape Town’s major industrial areas over the last 12 months:
Airport (Airport Industria and Airport City) – 5 Sales
Beaconvale – 4 Sales
Epping – 6 Sales
Killarney Gardens – 7 Sales
Maitland (Including Kensington and Ndabeni) – 8 Sales
Montague Gardens (including Marconi Beam) – 13 Sales
Parow East – 4 Sales
Parow Industria – 5 Sales
Paarden Eiland – 5 sales
Less than 2% of the properties in the above industrial areas on average changed hands in 2012. This confirms commercial and industrial property in Cape Town remains tightly held. Airport Property maintains a solid database of property investors, built up over many years and can report that there are no shortage of buyers for quality investment grade, commercial and industrial property in Cape Town, however there are few of these properties coming to the market.
There is less of a shortage of properties that are have short leases, are vacant or have other issues but without a bouyant leasing market and reluctance by the banks to fund these properties, they tend to remain on the market for longer periods. Sellers of these properties have low lending rates on their side and few appear to be prepared to drastically reduce their prices. Industrial land sales have been few and far between with owners in areas such as Brackengate and Airport City, preferring to do joint ventures rather than sell their vacant land. Until the risks in foreign markets start to subside, and the banks start to lend more easily, the position is likey to remain the same.
