URERU Seminar 2 – How COVID Has Affected The Cape Town CBD Property Market & The Strategies Being Used To Deal With The Effects Thereof

I am typing this blog shortly after the closing session of the second URERU Seminar of 2022 in Cape Town and I am going to admit that I’ve found the whole Seminar experience amazing. Especially, as being from the sponsors corner, I was a little concerned how the world views in-person Seminars and what our attendance would be.

What a turn out! Not our biggest, but most certainly the most intuitive and interactive audience we have ever seen. The guest speakers, Jonathan Rens and Frank Cumming didn’t disappoint, they provided insight and expert analysis on various topics across the property sector.

Jonathan Rens, the current COO of Texton Property Fund, opened the Seminar drawing from his experiences at Acucap and more recently at Texton. A key talking point was around the topic of ‘office to residential’ conversions, and the difficulties that come with converting an old office block into residential units. Stating that “it’s like trying to turn a camel into a horse, it’s not that easy”. He also addressed the very thorny topic of “is the office sector dead?” and how Texton are attracting new tenants.

This was followed by a short polling session providing the audience with an interactive element to the Seminar. 

After the break, it was straight into the second and last speaker of the evening, Frank Cumming. Frank provided powerful insight from a City of Cape Town perspective, highlighting that due to the 1^st world service delivery standards that the City of Cape Town municipality provided, combined with semigration it has buoyed the Cape Town property market.

The closing session featured Robert McGaffin from the Urban Real Research Unit, where he conducted a very stimulating Q&A session from the floor. 

There was so much good content that I wished the session was filmed. All this immediate content really contributed to the buzz surrounding the Seminar and certainly made me feel like I was part of an engaged, valued audience.

Keep an eye out for Seminar number 3.

#Seminar #URERU #QuoinOnline #CapeTown #JonathanRens #FrankCumming

“