We include
As custodians of the City’s land, buildings, and other assets, we deal with City departments who need to buy land for municipal purposes and residents who need to lease or buy City-owned buildings and land. These pieces of land are usually no longer required for municipal purposes.
As a general rule, the City does not support unsolicited bids for viable land (land that can be developed as a stand-alone) and we are compelled to follow a suite of legislation prescribing that a competitive process open to the public must be followed in these instances.
The following branches fall under Property Management:
Property Holding Branch
The branch consists of four regional offices, each of which is responsible for a defined geographical area of the City. The Head Office component consists of Improved Property, Lease-in, and Financial Support.
Our branch provides the following suite of services:
- Process applications to grant rights to or transfer non-viable non-exempted property e.g. a portion of road reserve for gardening purposes to the adjacent land owner;
- Reactive applications to grant rights to or transfer viable non-exempted property with the intention to regularize existing use for social purposes, e.g. a crèche has been occupying a site for 10 years and wish to buy the property;
- Reactive applications to grant rights to or transfer viable exempted property to Government Departments e.g. an application from the Department of Transport and Public Works, Western Cape to acquire a property for a school;
- Tenanting of the improved property portfolio;
- Reactive applications for telecommunication infrastructure;
- Reservation of City property for operational purposes, e.g. we reserve a property for the Human Settlements Department to develop a housing project;
- Manage an existing lease portfolio which consist of approximately 3500 leases;
- Manage SAP Real Estate functionality; and
- Manage office accommodation lease-in portfolio.
Relevant resources:
Property disposals and acquisitions
We lease and sell properties not required for municipal purposes, and buy property or rights in property (servitude) for municipal purposes. For example, we buy land that is required to build roads, reservoirs, pipelines or housing projects.
City properties are sold or leased to other parties where such property is not required for municipal purposes. Properties can only be sold with approval from Council. We lease and sell properties on a competitive basis e.g. a tender or auction.
When we purchase a property or rights in a property we first collect information about the land property, including who owns it and what the land is worth and negotiate with the owner of the property to buy the land.
The Mayoral Committee grants permission for the purchase of land. After the necessary permission is granted, a purchase agreement is drafted and signed by the two parties (City and owner).
