“We have yet to analyse the full results,” says CCID communications manager Carola Koblitz, “but what we’ve seen so far really heartens us and deals with some of the misperceptions that are out there about living in the Cape Town Central City.”
One of these, notes Koblitz, is the age group of the majority of residents which still reflects that the largest group of those living in the CBD are millennials (between the ages of 18 and 34), a trend already picked up in the 2015 survey but which has now shown significant growth. Whereas 44% of respondents from the 2015 survey fell into this age range, this number has now risen to 47% of all respondents.
“Clearly, our downtown area is echoing the trend that has been spotted in many other downtowns across the world, where urban living is really being embraced by millennials. An urban lifestyle ‘defines’ them, but it also puts paid to the misconception that the Cape Town Central City is too expensive to live in if you’re under 35.”
The most popular area to live in continues to be the East City, where 25% of respondents live (against 21% in 2015).
Among residents living in the CBD, those now renting units had slightly outstripped those who owned their own (46% rentals to 43% owned) as against the 2015 figures (46% rentals to 52% owned).
“This makes sense when you see that the category regarding owners who own a flat in the CBD but rent it out to others has increased significantly year-on-year, from 3% in 2015 versus 12% in 2016,” notes Koblitz. “And we know from the day-to-day enquires we get from people wanting to rent in the CBD that the demand is high.”
The top reason for living in the CBD and its immediate surrounds was that it was close to residents’ place of work (58%) and many residents (34%) were able to live as close as between 0 and 0.5km of their work (34%).
And The Company’s Garden still comes out tops in their favourite public spaces in the Central City - 93% chose this as their number one spot (against 91% from 2015).
With a total of 31 questions in all, there is still much work to be done on the final results, says Koblitz: “We’re very keen to see, for example, where residents prefer to go for entertainment, how often do they eat out or get a takeaway, what jobs do they do, how big are their households, where do they shop and what retail and other amenities would they like to see more of. But we also want to take careful cognisance of any figures that may have shown a decline, if we find any, from the 2015 results.
“While this can still only be considered a dipstick survey – we had a total of 232 respondents this year – we take the results extremely seriously, as they give us an indication of who is living in our downtown area and – most importantly – what would keep them here. Our aim is to have a downtown that is as far as possible reflective of the workforce and student population that occupy the CBD during its daylight hours. Then you have a community that takes ownership and cares about its neighbourhood.”
The CCID expects to have the full results of the survey out in time for the December issue of its quarterly newspaper City Views.
