The many South African municipalities now vying with each other to attract home buyers and home developers should, says Wayne Albutt, the Rawson Property Group’s Western Cape Regional Sales Manager, take a close look at what the Brackenfell local authorities are doing.
The Oostenberg Municipality, said Albutt, have been one of the relatively few councils in South Africa to act proactively, foreseeing future needs rather than waiting to be overtaken by them. They have, he said, not only made conditions easy for developers but, equally important, have ensured that the supporting infrastructure was rolled out to facilitate new development and to make the precinct increasingly attractive to those contemplating living there.
As a result, said Albutt, Brackenfell is pulling in new home buyers and tenants from around the country and there is no sign of this influx slowing down. Listing some of the facilities and infrastructure which have been introduced to Brackenfell in the last three decades – which go a long way to making it popular – Albutt mentioned five main factors.
The first of these is the recent establishment of three new schools – Curro Pre-Primary School, Curro Intermediate School and Bastion High School. As there were already three successful popular schools in the area, said Albutt, the new schools have given Brackenfell an impressive educational lineup.
The second big factor attracting buyers, said Albutt, has been the very comprehensive array of retail complexes developed in the area over the years. Shopping has never been more convenient for residents with a variety of retail outlets to suit their every need. The rollout here, he said, was initiated some three decades ago by the large Pick ‘n Pay Hypermarket, which was then followed several years down the line by the equally big Fairbridge Mall. Both have recently been overhauled and upgraded and the area has also in the last decade or so seen the advent of the Soneike Mall, the Glengarry Centre, Boulevard Square and the award winning Cape Gate shopping centre, one of the most attractive in the Western Cape.
A third aspect making the suburb of Brackenfell attractive, said Albutt, has been the ongoing upgrading of local road links, the effect of which has been that Brackenfell is one of the more easily accessed areas in Greater Cape Town. Here, he said, the programme was kicked off by the Okavango Road and bridge spanning the N1 freeway linking Brackenfell to Durbanville. Recently, said Albutt, Brackenfell Boulevard as well as Okavango Road have been completed allowing easier traffic flow between Brackenfell and Durbanville. Work is now in progress on the Bottelary Road/R300 link, which will improve access towards the airport, industrial nodes and to most of the Helderberg basin where industrial development is growing fast. This link will make it possible for Brackenfell residents and businesses to have access to both the N1 and N2 highways as well as the R300 within minutes no matter where they are located in Brackenfell.
Then, too, said Albutt, the Council has been several steps ahead of most of its rivals in its efforts to ‘green’ and "upkeep" the entire precinct with public open spaces, all planted with indigenous vegetation. Along with this initiative by council to landscape the public spaces, the private sector has taken steps to clean up the central business district by launching the Brackenfell CID. This has gone a long way in maintaining the safety of our businesses and residents, says Albutt. Although Brackenfell is now suburban, said Albutt, it retains something of its original rural atmosphere and, with its parks and sports fields, is for home buyers a big improvement on the sort of conditions encountered in the higher density and inner city precincts.
The ongoing semigration to Brackenfell, added Albutt, is also due to the fact that the area, once seen as being on the urban edge and almost “in the sticks’, is now recognized as being central to a number of new business nodes, in particular those at the Tyger Waterfront, along Durban Road (in both directions from the N1), Century City, which is becoming increasingly commercialized, Paarl and the Helderberg Basin.
“In normal traffic times most Brackenfell residents can get to their work places in 15 to 30 minutes,” said Albutt. “Rather to everyone’s surprise, Brackenfell, once seen as outlying, is now regarded by many as exceptionally well placed and in many respects central to greater Cape Town.”
For more information contact Rawson Properties Brackenfell/Kraaifontein on 021 204 8555
