BCM fees charged for plan submissions highest in SA

Metro rakes in 21 times more than Gauteng for office block

FEES for submitting plans to Buffalo City are the highest in South Africa.

This is according to a study of 19 metros and municipalities conducted by the SA Property Owners Association (Sapoa) earlier this year. Sapoa found that: ● Fees for building an 8 000m² eightstorey block of offices cost R17 000 in Johannesburg and a mind-bending 21 times higher at R361 964 in BCM – the most expensive in SA (average R112 439);

● Fees for building a shopping mall with a leasable area of 40 000m² cost R54 000 in Johannesburg and a stinging R1 809 824 in BCM, which was also the most expensive in the study (average R54 000);

● BCM’s fees for building a factory were the second highest, costing R361 000 for a large 10 000m² single-storey factory, compared to the cheapest fee of R21 500 in Johannesburg (average R134 257).

Nelson Mandela Bay Metro (NMBM) also charges astronomical fees, coming in second highest at R310 400 for the same sized commercial office block.

NMBM charged R1 552 000 to build a mall, which made it slightly cheaper than BCM.

At R388 000, it is more expensive to get a plan through NMBM to build a factory than in East London.

Fees at both metros stick out like sore thumbs on the graph with George charging R257 200 and Pholokwane R200 000 for the factory plan.

Sapoa’s East London chairman, Robin Knott, said: “We don’t know why.”

His deputy, Grant Wheatley, said BCM departments were hungry for resources and that BCM was in a taking mood.

The metro was more than happy to demand that developers put in major infrastructure on BCM land surrounding their properties, but BCM was not interested in offering rates rebates, while many other metros and municipalities were doing so.

On the flip side, BCM’s fees for the construction of 20 sectional title duplex units, each 100m² (medium-density housing), are cheap at R4 525 compared to a national sample average of R44 000, according to the Sapoa study.

Director of planning Nonceba MbaliMajeng said fees and tariffs were set down by the city council. —