CBN ARCHIVE - AUGUST '96:
Building: how the money moves

FOR the whole of 1995 the value of total building plans passed in the Western Cape was R3,3b. As might be expected about half (R1 768m) related to residential building, with the balance split between non-residential and alterations/additions.

CSS's 1995 figures can also be broken down for the different parts of the new Provincial region, the eight RSCs turned District Councils and the six new local government areas in the Cape Metro.

The Cape Metro was responsible for R2,3b, or 70% of the R3,3b total value of plans passed in the Western Cape. We have yet to see a return to the statistical region reporting but it is possible to apportion the balance of R1b. The Southern Cape (Oudtshoorn-George- Mossel Bay etc) was responsible for R329m or about 10% of 1995 plan approvals. The Boland winelands/fruit are a accounted for R402m or 12% of Western Cape approvals. The Overberg (grain/fruit) region between the Boland and Southern Cape accounted for R63m (or about 2%). All the rest accounted for less than 1%, with the West Coast region the only other significant area with R102m or 3% of approvals. Vredenburg-Saldanha is the main concentration on the West Coast.

For metropolitan Cape Town direct plan approvals by the CMC (Old Cape Divco, Cape RSC)accounted for R277m of the R2,3b. The balance of R2 000m is still recorded under the twenty odd old councils but it can be apportioned to the six new substructures which now replace those municipalities. As we don't have an official apportionment of the 1995 numbers this is a rough guide.

Tygerberg centred on the old Bellville Municipality) and Central (the old Cape Town) both approved about the same value in plans -R700m so each accounted for about a third of all metro values.

A somewhat expanded Milnerton (new Northern) and Helderberg also approved about the same values - R200m or somewhat under 10% of all metro plans. The Eastern (Kuils River) substructure had plans approvals of under R100m or less than 5% of metro values. The Southern(Peninsula) substructure of the old Fish Hoek, Simonstown area etc approved somewhat more thanR100m to make up the balance.

The old Cape Town local government hierarchy therefore no longer dominates Cape Metro activity as it is matched by the new Tygerberg local government substructure.

On a Province wide basis, the plan approval numbers suggest that the Cape Metro area may account for about 70% of economic activity in the Western Cape. (The Cape Metropolitan Council area is now about that Cape Metro). The numbers suggest two other major nodes of economic activity in the Western Cape, the Southern Cape and the Boland. Both the George-Oudtshoorn- Mossel Bay axis, and the Stellenbosch-Paarl-Worcester axis, may account for between 10 and 12% of Provincial economic numbers.