February 22, 2005
By Thomas Thale
INFORMATION about Johannesburg property will soon be just a click away, following an agreement between the City's Economic Development Unit (EDU) and the South African Property Owners Association (Sapoa) to jointly set up a database of buildings and business nodes over the next three years.
John Spiropolous, the director of Kagiso Urban Management, which has been contracted to update and upgrade the database, says members of the public will be able to access it - free of charge - online before the end of February.
"To begin with, it will have information which was collected in June 2004. The database will then be updated annually, with the boundaries of the areas covered being extended and more economic nodes added."
Called the Economic Activity Areas Database (EAA DB), the R4-million project will be hosted by the City's Corporate Geographical Information Services (CGIS).
Sapoa is the representative body of the commercial and industrial property sector in the country. Neil Gopal, the chief operating officer, says the organisation has a combined portfolio of more than R150-billion. "Sapoa members control +/- 90 percent of all commercial and industrial property in South Africa."
In its January sitting, the council endorsed the proposal, clearing the way for the joint venture - the first such partnership in the country - to be implemented.
The new database will be set up by merging and extending two existing databases - the inner city database, which provides detailed information on buildings in parts of the inner city; and the nodal database, which provides information on 25 economic nodes across the city. "We will consolidate the two into one Economic Activity Areas Database that contains both erf-based and property sector-related information," says Li Pernegger, the programme manager of economic area regeneration in the EDU.
Spiropolous says the property sector information section covers various aspects per node, such as:
- Town planning applications and approvals;
- Building plan approvals;
- Built form (Gross Lettable Area per m2);
- Vacancy rate (in percentages);
- Gross rental range per m2;
- Total operating costs per m2;
- Assessment rates operating costs (m2 GLA);
- Estimated asset market value; and
- Net initial yield.
Gopal says the database will enable Sapoa to provide the market with up-to-date property research and information. "This is a collective effort by both parties to provide the public with relevant information."
Sapoa will give the City access to detailed property information and technical skills and management capacity. "Our contribution is based on our participation. We will provide information and resources."
The nodal database provides an appraisal of 25 business nodes to assess their economic prospects. It contains a brief overview of each node, including history, node description and catchment area. "You can even compare one node to another. You can compare as many nodes as you want in terms of their economic profile by simply clicking the comparison tool on the drop down menu," explains Paulo De Jesus, a specialist at the CGIS.
While it has reports and maps for each node, the database is simply not comprehensive enough and more nodes will be added over the next three years, says Pernegger. "It was developed to assess the economic importance of each node and its relative position and to set a datum in order to be able to track trends in economic growth and decline over time. This will be a valuable tool in helping to direct City and private sector investment in a far more proactive manner than to date."
Originally developed by the Johannesburg Property Company, the inner city information was captured to promote and assist investors in the inner city and to provide useful information to the public, business and the council, on planning and allocation of infrastructure expenditure. It contains information on various Central Improvement Districts (CIDs) in the inner city and generates detailed reports and maps on each erf.
"The purpose of the database was to provide up-to-date information on properties for investment purposes, and to assist the City in planning interventions in the inner city in a more strategic way," Pernegger explains.
De Jesus says the database has aerial and other photographs of buildings in the inner city and detailed reports about the owners, primary land uses, land value, improvement value, street name, condition, space to let and parking bays available in the building. "You can zoom in on the building and get any information you need on the building," says De Jesus. "You can establish who owns the building. You can even have aerial views of various inner city buildings, including houses and open spaces."
The database gives an idea of property values across the inner city, from the most expensive skyscrapers to more humble dwellings. Initially, it will offer information on certain parts of the central business district, Braamfontein and Newtown, but it will be gradually extended to cover more parts of the city.
The project will develop over the next four years, expanding the database to cover more areas, says Spiropolous. "As we refresh the information, the number of economic nodes will increase."
When it goes live, the database will be available at: http://eservices.joburg.org.za/joburg/eservices
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