28 May 2026
The municipal parking lot next to the civic centre in the centre of Cape Town is to be released for a mixed-use development. Photo supplied by the City of Cape Town.
The City of Cape Town council has approved the release of an “underutilised” parking lot adjacent to the Civic Centre for a mixed-use development that will include affordable housing.
A formal public participation process will now begin, after which bids will be invited to purchase the property. The estimated value of the land is R235-million.
“If the sale follows through, the proceeds from the sale will be diverted for maintenance or used to improve the Cape Town Civic Centre,” reads the report tabled before the council on Wednesday.
The development will include an unspecified number of “market-driven” affordable housing units. These are different from social housing, because it will likely not be subsidised with state funds.
Instead, the City’s model for affordable housing, targeted at households earning less than R32,000 a month, relies on cross-subsidising with high-end units in the same development.
The site currently has 355 parking spaces, 70 of which are allocated to the City’s vehicles. Only half of the parking spaces are used on weekdays, the report says.
The development may be between 20 and 24 storeys.
“The property presents the City with a strategic response to long-standing criticism regarding its limited progress in addressing the structural imbalances in the CBD residential property market,” the report reads.
At Wednesday’s council meeting, GOOD councillor Axolile Notywala, said land should be prioritised for inclusionary housing. The party had previously proposed a moratorium on the sale of public land in the city until an affordable housing policy was finalised.
“If Cape Town had an inclusionary housing policy, the foreshore land could benefit some of the over 20,000 City of Cape Town working-class employees,” said Notywala.
In 2024, the #Land4PeopleNot4Parking campaign identified four other sites that could be used for housing. These were: Parliament’s parking lot on Roeland Street, owned by the national government; Top Yard parking lot on Glynn Street, and government garages on Hope Street and Roeland Street, all owned by the Western Cape government.
Bevil Lucas, a leader at Reclaim the City, said developments should consider low-income workers. Affordable housing targeting households earning less than R32,000 will likely exclude people of lower incomes.
Housing group Ndifuna Ukwazi initially welcomed the announcement. “It reflects growing recognition that well-located public land should be prioritised for affordable housing instead of underutilised parking infrastructure or exclusive private development,” it said in a statement.
