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Living in the Cape Town CBD is convenient, to say the least.

However, the longer the COVID-19 pandemic drags on, the more the wants and needs of tenants are shifting, and life in the ‘burbs has become that much more desirable.

A garden, for one, helps maintain a degree of sanity, and working from home means that tenants are looking for larger spaces.

According to Craig Watchurst, a rentals agent for Seeff CBD and City Bowl who spoke with BusinessTech, demand is shifting “to homes where [tenants] can have a view of the mountain or ocean rather than looking at buildings all day”.

That trend is being noted by other agents, too:

Jacqui Bush and Sonya Garisch, rental agents for Seeff Southern Suburbs said their rental markets have been exceptionally buoyant since mid-2020 with several record months. In Constantia, Newlands and Tokai demand currently exceeds supply in certain price bands…

Across most areas, the lower price ranges are most in demand. In Cape Town’s Southern Suburbs and the Constantiaberg area, there is now a shortage of stock particularly in the R15,000 to R35,000 per month range according to the agents.

If you’re due to sign a lease renewal soon, it may be worth having a chat about what you pay going forward, as both Bush and Garisch noted that many landlords have either not increased or reduced their monthly rentals in order to hold onto tenants.

We should also mention that the new Café du Cap has just opened up in Cape Town’s most desirable ‘village’ – Newlands Village – so there’s another reason to consider the ‘burbs.

It’s not just the Southern Suburbs that are very much in vogue, with Anneke Van Rooyen, rentals manager for Seeff Durbanville, pointing out that the Northern Suburbs have the lowest vacancy rate of 5,1%, according to the latest TPN Vacancy Survey.

You do then have to tell people you live in the Northern Suburbs, so everything comes at a cost.

The BusinessTech article goes on to unpack how a combination of downscaling and proximity to schools and universities has further increased demand for rentals outside of the CBD.

You can read that article in full here.

[source:businesstech]