Hosted by the City of Johannesburg’s Development Planning Department, the International Town Planning Day has brought together some of the city’s more esteemed internal and externals stakeholders both equally invested in building a more resilient, welcoming and sustainable city.

As part of the 70th World Town Planning Day, a day known to present an opportunity to look at town planning from a global perspective, the City of Johannesburg’s inaugural World Town Planning Day event welcomed a gathering of conscious citizens as well as invested public authorities with the intent to draw attention to the environmental impact that town planning takes into consideration in the ongoing development of growing cities as well as addressing the city’s unique housing and property development needs.

The Joburg Property Company works closely with Development Planningin forging an appetite for property investment, #BuildingNewJozi through the restoration of derelict buildings, supplying affordable housing for the citizens and addressing the demand for student accommodation; this day clarified the City’s Development Planning process, prospecting property entrepreneurs are encouraged to pursue tenders and RFQ’s currently made available by the JPC throughout various regions of the city. Enabled with end to end process required investors better informed about various property prospects and development purposes.

The ongoing challenges of inadequate infrastructure, inefficient schooling facilities and access to fully operational clinics has also brought about a new focus in addressing affordable and student housing demands seeing to it that a number of incentives are made available for developments who implement The Inclusionary Housing Policy, 20%.

Alongside encouraging and enabling property investor interest, Towns Planning Day is also aimed to shine a light on sustainable and Green Buildings development with a number of exciting initiatives and planned progress for the City’s future. Of these pursuits, the City’s Development Planning Department hopes to see the future development of zero carbon buildings after the City signed the Net Zero Carbon Building Declaration. While the CoJ’sGreen Building policy remains in the in public participation phase, plans to continuously review of the development planning process, adding value to clients by improving the approval process is an ongoing focus.