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- Cape Town's city centre, like most central business districts, was seriously hurt by the Covid-19 pandemic and its associated restrictions.
- The inner city shed more than 100 retail businesses in 2020 alone.
- The situation improved in 2021, with Cape Town's city centre gaining 135 businesses, with retail accounting for more than 27% of these.
- By the third quarter of 2022, Cape Town had recovered almost 98% of its retail businesses, with a full return to pre-pandemic levels expected before the end of the year.
- For more stories, go to www.BusinessInsider.co.za.
Cape Town's inner city is recovering from its pandemic-induced trouble, with retail business expected to return to 2019 levels by the end of the year.
Central business districts (CBDs) the world over were severely impacted by Covid-19, with offices closed as staff worked from home and entertainment venues shuttered amid social-distance restrictions. Hotels struggled to fill rooms because of travel bans, while stores and sit-down restaurants saw a drop in foot traffic as customers opted for online shopping and takeaways.
The Cape Town Central City Improvement District (CCID) – covering 1.6km², stretching from Buitensingel to Nelson Mandela Boulevard and from Buitengracht to Canterbury Street – wasn't spared.
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More than 100 retail businesses within the central city closed in 2020. The number of operational businesses across all sectors decreased by more than 14%, with retail, the biggest causality, joined by the likes of financial institutions, travel and accommodation, architecture, and advertising as others hardest hit.
Vacant office space in the Cape Town CBD climbed to almost 15%.
Despite recurring waves of infection and fluctuating lockdown levels in 2021, Cape Town's inner city saw some improvement. This recovery has been detailed in the latest State of Cape Town Central City Report (SCCR) released by the CCID on Wednesday.
The CBD gained a total of 135 businesses in 2021, with retail accounting for more than 27% of these. The return of coffee shops, cafes, cell phone stores, kiosks, barber shops, restaurants, bars, and takeaway outlets are some of the leading contributors to this recovery in the retail segment.
Despite being around 6% lower than pre-pandemic levels at the end of 2021, the city's retail segment is expected to make a full recovery by the end of 2022. This is supported by Sandra Gordon, SCCR research economist, who provided more recent data, up to the third quarter of 2022, on retail's recovery.
By the end of the third quarter, a total of 1,208 retail businesses were operational in Cape Town's inner city, representing a recovery of almost 98% compared to 2019 levels.
"We're fairly confident that, by the end of this year, we will be back at 2019 levels," said Gordon during the launch of the latest SCCR.
"Looking at retail, pubs, clubs, and coffee shops… you can see the knock they took in Covid, but they are now close to their pre-Covid levels, and, since I created this chart about a week ago, I know of at least one more restaurant and one more coffee shop that has opened, so we are slowly but steadily working back to our pre-Covid levels."
And while retail has rebounded quickly in Cape Town's city centre, other business segments are lagging.
Property, real estate, and education businesses had decreased at the end of 2021, while ICT and telecoms remained stagnant, with Gordon suggesting that, in many cases, work in these segments had permanently shifted online.
The rise in retail has not extended to fuller offices, either. The inner-city's office vacancy rates climbed to 16.1% – slightly higher than the national average – at the end of 2021, "prompting inner city landlords and property developers to reimagine the pandemic office landscape and repurpose vacant space."
