Embracing digital transformation has seen the rapidly expanding coastal town George process a record R16bn worth of building plans in four years.
The town, which boasts the second largest municipality in the Western Cape and is famous for its natural beauty, also reported strong revenue growth over the festive season.
Planning and development MMC Marlene Barnardt credits the property boom to the municipality rolling out digital platforms developed and funded as part of a provincial initiative to promote the ease of doing business. The initiative included digitising building plan applications.
George is a boom town. It has an airport, sea and a huge tourism element. It also has a reputation for being well-run.
— Marlene Barnardt, planning and development MMC
“Since the full implementation of the online portal in 2020, the municipality has had a significant improvement in the number of building plans processed, reflecting the city’s growth and the effectiveness of the systems in place,” said Barnardt.
The switch enabled the municipality, over the past four financial years, to process 11,744 applications covering 2,115,157m² with an estimated value of R15.98bn.
Property specialist Erwin Rode said the number of people who want to settle in the town did not surprise him. He said George, like Hermanus, Somerset West and Stellenbosch, was a “boom town”.
“George is a boom town. It has an airport, sea and a huge tourism element. It also has a reputation for being well-run.” Many new developments were for “residential properties”.
Barnardt said enhancement of the building control module had enabled faster processing times while meeting service level standards and legislative requirements. “The building control division has eradicated all backlogs and has maintained this status of no backlogs for the past three years.
“The integration of on-premises modules for inspections and certificates of occupancy has further streamlined the process, ensuring compliance and effective monitoring of building projects. Notably, 97.93% of certificates of occupancy were processed within the legislative time frame during the 2023/2024 financial year.”
Barnardt said digitisation had improved transparency, accountability and efficiency by providing real-time updates, reducing paperwork and in-person visits and enabling better performance monitoring through data analytics.
George is known for its natural beauty, temperate climate and rich history. It serves as a regional transport hub and gateway to attractions such as Wilderness and Knysna.
Meanwhile, the town's preliminary festive season assessment showed significant revenue growth in the tourism sector. December revenue was estimated to be just more than R51m (28% growth year-on-year).
Domestic tourists made up about 56% of visitors while 44% were international arrivals from Germany, the UK and US.
“This festive season exceeded our expectations, reflecting the unwavering appeal of our region and the dedicated efforts of our tourism teams and partners. From bustling markets to full visitor activations, George and its surrounds again proved to be a premier destination,” said Joan Shaw, tourism manager at George, Wilderness and Uniondale Tourism.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.