Construction of Modderfontein New City Begins
Construction by Hong Kong-listed owners, Shanghai Zendai, of the R84 billion city in Modderfontein on the Gauteng’s East Rand has begun in earnest. It is expected to boast an estimated 300 low-cost residential housing units, a financial trade centre and basic education facilities.
Construction plans were revealed in April last year by Shanghai Zendai’s founder, Zikhang Dai. In 2013, the company acquired 1,600 hectares of Modderfontein land for R1.06 billion from AECI, the South African explosives and chemicals group. The immense project will be amongst the largest property deals by the Chinese in the country. The chief operating officer of Zendai South Africa, Du Wendui, explained that the development is a project that will span 10-15 years and conceded that scepticism around the project’s success is inevitable given ‘artistic’ impressions of it as Africa’s Manhattan.
He was quoted to comment, “The project will be market-driven, and, depending on what our clients or developers want, the sky is the limit. Twenty years ago, nobody would have imagined that Sandton would look like it does today with its multiple skyscrapers."
Plans for the new mega city cover the full spectrum and include a central business district, churches, a library, hospital and medical facilities, a sports and international conference centre, schools, and low-cost housing, among others, with the city predicted to rival the ‘richest square mile of Africa’ status that Sandton hitherto enjoys.
In 2013, China-based property developing mogul, Dai Zhikang, predicted the project would transform the property into a ‘New York of Africa’ and would become the future capital for the whole of the content. And as one might expect with a combined industrial property, commercial property and residential property project of this scale, it will be leading with technology. PCCW Global, Hong Kong’s HKT’s operating division is set to deliver the telecommunications and technology services for the new city.
Shanghai Zendai has been under scrutiny over the project by the Competition Commission who questioned the ability of the project to benefit local communities and create sustainable jobs. Zhikang allayed fears by estimating that, at completion of the project in 30 years, 300,000 people would be living and/or working in the community.
The complex’s development in numbers:
16 km² Land holding
6 km² Open space
12 million m² Development capacity
100,000 Homes
Creation of 200,000 jobs
R84 billion investment over full development plan
9 Functional development areas, including planned transportation network with rail and express roads.
Looking at these figures, it’s difficult to argue that the vision for Zendai Modderfontein – the development’s proposed name – will set economic and trade balls rolling across South Africa, as well as the greater continent, not least of all within the industrial property sector.