As a legacy of the 2010 Fifa World Cup, the suburb of Green Point and its stadium not only gained untold recognition as a world class sport destination, but also saw the launch of its very own Green Point Park, a reconfiguration of what was previously known as Green Point Common.
When Cape Town Stadium was constructed a number of infrastructural developments were made by the City of Cape Town. Roads were upgraded and access was provided to the Western Boulevard, and the new Granger Bay Boulevard leading to the V & A Waterfront was constructed. This was followed by the opening of Green Point Park and Biodiversity Garden earlier this year, one of the city’s largest investments in creating an urban park around the stadium, and is commonly referred to the city’s ‘green lung’.
Green Point is neighbour to Cape Town’s Bo-Kaap, DeWaterkant and Mouille Point, and is located centrally to the north west of the city’s central business district, and within close proximity of the Atlantic Seaboard. Green Point has been famously known as the seaside suburb with wide open green spaces, and the lesser known fact about the Green Point Common is its original use as a prisoner transit camp during the Second Boer War. Possibly as a result of its close proximity to the Mouille Point Lighthouse, the common was later converted into a variety of sport fields and clubs, including the Metropolitan Golf Course.
This trendy suburb with a market stock of 72% sectional share has a reputation for being a popular residential choice among young professionals and for the Cape Town gay and lesbian community. This suburb has seen high value property investment in the past 5 years in the form of many new mid-rise apartment and mixed-use developments Somerset Road forms the main thoroughfare lined by numerous restaurants, cafés, boutiques and nightclubs, which was also part of the famous Fan Walk during the World Cup celebrations last year. The area closest to the main road is home to a broad selection of section scheme properties as well as large traditional free standing homes that were built higher up below Lions Head and where many steep streets were constructed around Cape Town's residential properties.
The total of 186 property transfers that took place in Green Point during 2010 comprised 129 sectional share and 49 freehold, with the most popular price range of sectional share falling within the R1.1 million mark, as opposed to average house prices sold last year at yet average prices between the two of R3.4 million. Also illustrating the nature of property buyers in Green Point is the 176 bonds were registered of the total of 186 property transfers that went through the Deeds Office in 2010. However, Green Point has shown unprecedented upward growth in the current economic climate with freehold property prices at its highest since 2004, and rose from R1.6 million then to R3.4 in 2011, exceeding last years average freehold price of R3.2 million.
Green Point offers residents a variety of public amenities, including private and state medical care, community health centre and a number of shopping malls, as well as a variety of public and private schools.