South Africa is a country on the up. In addition to its hosting of the 2010 World Cup, which will shine a global spotlight on the country, inflation last month slowed to a seven-month low of 4.9% year-on-year, GDP growth has averaged 4.1% per annum since 2000 (5% in 2006), variable interest rates are at their lowest since the early 1980s, and unemployment is steadily falling.

That’s not to say it doesn’t have its problems. Crime is a big issue across the country – most people live in gated and manned communities, and armed patrols are routine – but the issue is being addressed. In Cape Town, crime has been reduced by 90% since 2000 through the introduction of a ‘clean and safe’ policy. The programme, supported by the business community, has brought life back to the central business district (CBD).

“Eight years ago, much of the CBD was boarded up and very few people lived here,” says Andrew Boraine, chief executive of the Cape Town Partnership, an organisation charged with leading the process of urban regeneration in the central city. “Nowadays, approximately 7,000 people live in the CBD, office vacancies are only 4% (it was 25%) and 3,000 new apartments have been built or renovated in the last two years.”

Such has been the city’s renaissance over the past few years, apartment prices at Mandela Rhodes Place have increased by £40,000 since the off-plan sales price of late 2005. The appreciation is repeated across the city. “Capital growth has been 35% per annum for the last three years in Cape Town,” says Frank Gormley, chairman of Eurocape, the developer of Mandela Rhodes Place. Over the next five years, I predict prices will rise stratospherically by around 20% a year.” Cape Town is not alone in experiencing a booming housing market over the past half-decade.