The southern basin of Durban

The most sort after industrial and logistics property in the greater Durban area is located from Maydon Wharf in the Port down the narrow corridor of land between the sea and the N2 highway. This narrow corridor includes Congella, Jacobs, Mobeni and parts of Clairwood and runs all the way to the end of Prospecton where the Amazimtoti River creates a natural boundary to what is known as the Southern Basin of Durban.

There is very limited space in this corridor that is hemmed in by the sea on one side and residential townships and suburbs on the other. The concept of available vacant land is unheard of. The only piece of land that has recently been acquired for development is the old Clairwood race course which is situated alongside Jacobs and Mobeni. This development by Fortress Income Fund will be watched with keen interest as it will bring a lot more stock onto the market.

“I have many clients, especially from Johannesburg, who cannot understand why it is so difficult to find property either to buy or lease in this area. My answer is always the same - location, location, location” says Samantha Anderson, Deal Core’s resident economist and area specialist for the Southern Basin of Durban.

This area is home to a wide variety of businesses from multi nationals such as Toyota, SAPPI, SAB Miller, Grindrod and Chep to major logistics operators such as Bridge Port, UTI, SA Inland and Henneways to small and medium enterprises that fill all the gaps.

Whilst many large established manufacturing businesses have been resident in the Southern Basin since the 1930’s such as Tiger Brands, the area is slowly changing into a logistics hub due to the proximity to the Port. The old Dunlop Factory within close proximity to Maydon Wharf that was home to the tyre manufacturer for over eighty years is currently being redeveloped by the JT Ross Property Group into a state of the art logics park. Hence as our manufacturing sector continues to face enormous pressure from imports, the land use in the Southern Basin is changing with it.

Known as Zone 1, all property less than 10kms from the Port affords the cheapest transport of containerised or break bulk freight from the key side. The down side of the logistics industry is a lot of truck congestion on roads leading to and from the Port.

For any further information on property in the Southern Basin of Durban, please contact Ryan Berry on 083 607 8128.