Unlocking Cape Town’s land and assets to drive growth, jobs and opportunity

Opinion Piece by Alderman James Vos, Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth

Cape Town is taking a very clear and practical approach to economic growth: we make our land and assets work for the people of this city.

Not sit idle. Not remain stuck in old ways of thinking. But actively unlock value from what the City owns so that it can drive investment, jobs, and opportunity.

There are still those who believe the state should simply hold on to everything, regardless of whether it is productive or not. But we’ve seen what that leads to, underperforming public entities, assets sitting unused, and land and buildings in prime locations that add no real value while communities around them continue to need housing and opportunity.

That is not the approach we are taking in Cape Town.

Our view is simple: if the City owns land or assets, they must work for the public. And if they are sitting underutilised, then we must take a serious look at how we unlock their value.

As the Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth, it is absolutely my mandate to oversee the work of departments such as Property Transactions and Property Development, which are tasked with exactly this responsibility, ensuring that the City’s property portfolio of land and assets is actively used to support economic growth.

That means looking across the City’s portfolio and asking hard but necessary questions: which land, which buildings, which assets are underused, and how do we bring them into productive use?

Sometimes that means releasing well-located land for development. Sometimes it means unlocking buildings that are not being used to their full potential, municipal buildings that are sitting half-used or not optimised for service or economic value. Sometimes it means looking at vacant land that is literally collecting dust, or in some cases becoming informal dumping grounds or even being at risk of unlawful occupation, and asking how we turn that into something productive instead. And sometimes it means rethinking assets that may seem small on their own, like vacant sites or even dormant parking areas in high-demand parts of the city, and asking how they can be turned into opportunities for housing, business, or local economic activity.

This is what a modern, growth-focused city does with its property portfolio. It does not allow valuable land and assets to sit idle while demand for space, housing, and investment continues to grow.

We are not approaching this from an ideological position. We are approaching it from a practical one: what works, what creates jobs, and what unlocks value faster for Capetonians.

And very importantly, this is not about the City stepping away. It is about the City stepping up differently, enabling investment, partnering with the private sector, and bringing in the capital and expertise needed to unlock the full potential of our land and assets.

Because the reality is simple: if we try to do everything alone, we move too slowly. But when we unlock the private sector alongside a clear public mandate, we can turn dormant assets into real projects much faster, projects that create jobs, support housing delivery, and grow the local economy.

This approach is already shaping how we manage the City’s property portfolio. Across Cape Town, we are identifying opportunities for release and redevelopment that can shift land and assets from underutilised space into productive economic use.

At the heart of it, this is about responsibility. The responsibility to ensure that what the City owns is not just held on a balance sheet, but is actively contributing to the future of the city.

Because a city is not measured by how much land and assets it holds, but by what it does with them.

And in Cape Town, we will continue to make sure our property portfolio works, for jobs, for investment, and for the people of this city.