It is apparent that there are more and more buildings, especially in Bloemfontein’s central areas, that are standing vacant and are in a very poor state of repair.
Why is this?
Some of these properties are commercial properties and all buildings have a life cycle.
When new they are effective and efficient but they age physically and socially over the years.
A modern office building is designed very differently from the one that was built in the 1930s.
Young people probably won’t understand how different the working environment was just 30-40 years ago.
At that time there were no computers, no photo copy machines, no fax machines and no cellphones.
Everything was manual – making copies was done by adding extra pages into a manual typewriter with carbon paper inbetween.
Transportation was also very different.
Yes, there were cars but most people did not have one and travelled to work by public transport.
Thus, buildings had little or no parking.
The old UBS building on the corner of Hoffman Square and the mall in Bloemfontein is a 6000-square-metre six-storey building with only 20 basement parking bays.
The Cuthbert’s building opposite has none!
Such buildings have no attraction to modern businesses and are relegated to third-class status.
Having lower incomes, they are marginal properties that are not well maintained and, in many cases, do not generate any net profit income at all.
No wonder they are in the condition that they are in, especially as they can only attract the lowest and poorest class of tenant.
In reality many areas in town should be demolished and regenerated as modern areas to attract business back.
Having said that, the lack of control and enforcement of rules and regulations by council is to blame for many of the woes of city properties.
How can an active council allow buildings to stand in a semi-demolished condition without chasing the owner to fix them up?
Uncollected rubbish, unfixed lights and robots and potholes all tend to diminish the desirability of an area, resulting in lower rentals and a greater problem of deteriorated buildings.
We are now seeing similar problems with some residential buildings.
This is not usually in single residential buildings as when the area gets cheap enough, there appears a type of buyer that can afford to buy up these dilapidated buildings and improve them.
Wilgehof is a great example of this happening.
Built in the 1950s by the Department of Community Development, it used to be an area for poor people but because of its central position and new developments such as Saratoga, the area has grown in stature and improved immensely in condition.
This cannot be said of other areas such as Willows, where lawlessness is rife because of lack of enforcement by the metro.
This is one of the least safe areas in the city and nearly all the family occupants have moved away.
Sectional title legislation also has not made it easy to maintain some older sectional title blocks.
These are community living units with multiple owners.
Older buildings built before the 1980s are in many cases in need of major upgrades, including rewiring and modern electrical connections as well as replumbing of old rusted piping.
But owners have different reasons for owning these properties and there are often conflicts of interest.
One owner living there wants the building to be maintained to a high standard while a landlord owner is looking at the return he obtains and wants the levies as low as possible.
Most owners object to what is perceived as high levies which are necessary to collect enough reserves to be able to tackle these problems resulting in a continuous deterioration in the condition of these buildings.
Current law that makes it near impossible to chase owners who do not pay levies and tenants that do not pay rental and service fees just makes the situation worse.
Again, the difficulty in getting rid of bad tenants such as drug pushers kills most of these buildings.
The current state of the economy does little to make things better.
The high level of rates and taxes and lack of services tends to make it unprofitable for landlords and COVID-19 has reduced the demand for commercial properties.
Theft and vandalism in vacant buildings is a major problem that, combined with low demand, has resulted in many dilapidated buildings around town.
There is no easy solution but it would help if much of the red tape and bias was removed from the property industry.
- Mike Spencer is the founder and owner of Platinum Global. He is also a professional associated property valuer and consultant with work across the country as well as Eastern Europe and Australia.