Zero cranes in Sandton CBD tells the story of Joburg's decline

The Citizen

15 hours ago

The days of multiple cranes across the Sandton skyline – maybe a decade ago – are far, far gone.
It's been well over a year since there's been a construction crane visible in the Sandton CBD. This would've been in late 2023, when shopping centre LXX Sandhurst near the Discovery head office was under construction (it opened in July 2024).
Beyond the immediate CBD, there are currently three cranes at a shopping centre (yes, another one!) under construction at Sandton Gate on Winnie Mandela Drive (near Sandton Drive). There are also a few dotting the skyline towards Barlow Park on Katherine Street.
The days of multiple cranes across the Sandton skyline – maybe a decade ago – are far, far gone. During the boom in the mid 2000s, turbo-charged by the the Fifa World Cup, there were literally dozens of cranes visible across Sandton's horizon.
Of course, a period of strong economic growth would change this, but it's tough to see what the catalyst would be for this. Plus, there's a glut of office space available in the node.
Growthpoint reported vacancies across Sandton of 20.1% at the end of December, while Redefine says its vacancy rate in the area is 11.2%. This is an enormous amount of space that would first need to be absorbed by the market, should the economy return to a much higher growth rate.
Still, there's a pile of development plans for ageing buildings or prime space still available in the node that would be dusted off.
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Regional dynamics
There are some regional dynamics at play in Johannesburg as well. Smaller large corporates are increasingly moving their head office campuses to Waterfall, which is arguably a private city within a city (albeit one that is publicly accessible). PwC, Deloitte, Accenture, Premier, DP World (formerly Imperial Logistics) and Sage are just some of those who have relocated their campuses to Waterfall City.
Beyond Sandton, there are some cranes visible in Joburg, but these are in more specialist nodes like Waterfall and Riversands (north of Fourways), which is seeing clear investment in logistics-focused developments. Across Winnie Mandela Drive, at Steyn City, the development's 'City Centre' is all but complete. Most, if not all, of those cranes have disappeared.
This stands in stark contrast to Cape Town, which is a hive of construction activity, particularly in Sea Point and at Riverlands (the site of the new Amazon campus) near Observatory. There's also activity as high-rises expand westwards from the CBD (along Bree Street, for example).
Construction has commenced at the city's second tallest skyscraper (a mixed-use development, One on Bree) at the corner of Bree and Hans Strijdom Streets on the Foreshore (opposite Portside).
Development at the V&A Waterfront is about to kick into high gear as the precinct expands towards Granger Bay. Even now, though, there are likely more construction cranes up in that precinct than in the Joburg metro.
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In Durban, the situation is similar in the metro's de facto CBD, Umhlanga. Development is still booming around Gateway, across the N2 at Cornubia, and in the Umhlanga Rocks 'village'. North of this, the Sibaya Precinct is also a hub of construction activity.
This clear divergence could not be more stark. One needs to ask to what extent the urban decay and infrastructure deterioration in Johannesburg has contributed to this.
Clearly, the flee northwards to Waterfall is somewhat being fuelled by that. There are no craters on every second or third corner where water bursts have been 'repaired' as there are in Sandton. Traffic lights tend not to always work, not to mention the overall challenge of getting in and out of Sandton from any direction every day.
Transport infrastructure upgrades in the node have been painfully slow (aside from cycle lanes which were added a few years ago). The Rea Vaya construction mess on Katherine Street has been left abandoned and nearly complete for years. Work has now started on Rivonia Road (past Sandton City and the Gautrain station).
Well over a decade ago, an executive at one of the largest property funds (and landlords) in the country privately shared a solution to solve the traffic mess in Sandton. This plan, no doubt commissioned from consulting engineers at great cost, would see Katherine, Sandton Drive, Grayston Drive and Rivonia Road becoming a one-way ring road. That was 15 years ago. Who knows if it'll ever be needed.
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Any corporate making a decision on a new head office in Joburg today is probably unlikely to choose Sandton over a campus like Waterfall City.
The number of total building plans passed by large municipalities in Gauteng versus Western Cape a decade apart tells the story (although, of course, this also includes Pretoria, Ekurhuleni and George).
January to May 2015 January to May 2025 Western Cape Gauteng Western Cape Gauteng Office and banking m2 63 537 205 083 31 706 32 001 value R'000 468 930 1 782 368 303 991 401 649 Shopping m2 40 688 179 224 65 405 31 073 value R'000 325 112 1 424 791 542 275 334 590
A decade ago, Gauteng was building three times the amount of office space as the Western Cape. Today, the two are neck and neck. With retail, the difference was more than four times. In this segment, the Western Cape is now double that of Gauteng. That's a tale in and of itself.
This article was republished from Moneyweb. Read the original here.