Known as the city where the “fun never sets”, Durban attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists a year and has many holiday apartments to let along the beachfront. However, as South Africa’s busiest port, it also has about 600 000 permanent residents and there is strong demand for rental accommodation in or close to the bustling CBD.
Flats to let in the CBD range from bachelor or studio units which rent for about R3600 a month, through one and two-bedroom units starting at around R4300 a month, and all the way up to three-bedroom family-size apartments at around R5200 a month.
This rental accommodation is mostly popular with young working people and with students attending one of Durban’s many highly-regarded tertiary education institutions, including the Durban University of Technology, Thekwini FET College, PC Training & Business College, Varsity College and of course the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Durban is part of the eThekwini metro (the name being derived from the Zulu word “itheku” meaning bay or lagoon) and arguably SA’s most multicultural city, with a long and interesting history. Although “Terro da Natal” had been visited by sailors, hunters and missionaries since 1497, the first white settlers in the Zulu Kingdom only arrived in 1824, while the first Indian inhabitants arrived in the 1860s to work on the sugar-cane plantations.
Since then it has continued to attract residents from many other parts of the world, including the UK and Europe, the Far East and the rest of Africa, and today the city is a vibrant kaleidoscope of cultures and traditions that combine to make it a place like no other.
The construction of the roads, railways and infrastructure surrounding the port began in around 1900 and Durban attained city status in 1935. The port itself is one of the 10 biggest in the world and is certainly the busiest container port in the Southern Hemisphere. It is also a favoured port for the burgeoning ocean cruise industry and the permanent base of the MSC Sinfonia, for example, from November to April.
The city also has an International Convention Centre which has been host to many international events since being officially opened by President Nelson Mandela in 1997. Across the road is the 9000sqm Durban Exhibition Centre which hosts the annual East Coast Radio House and Garden Show and many other functions, both corporate and private. Both these facilities generate further demand for short-term rental accommodation in the city as well as hotel rooms.
Renting an apartment in the inner city also gives residents a close-up of a number of interesting historical buildings, including the Durban City Hall. This is over 100 years old but has recently been renovated and continues to accommodate the Mayor and most of the city managers, even though most of the municipal departments have relocated across the city.
.Situated next door is the well-known Durban Natural Science Museum, which is famous for a life-size model of a T-rex dinosaur, a near-complete Dodo skeleton and an Egyptian mummy.
For those in search of entertainment, one of the city’s most unusual attractions is the Roma Revolving Restaurant, which affords diners 360degree views of the skyline as they feast on authentic Italian food. Established in 1973, it is now the only genuine revolving restaurant in the Southern hemisphere and one of only three in the world.
There is also plenty on offer in the city for sports lovers, including national and international cricket games at the Sahara Kingsmead stadium, rugby at the Growthpoint Kings Park stadium and soccer at the famous Moses Mabhida stadium that was built for the Soccer World Cup in 2010.
Copyright © 2022 Trafalgar Property.