Nelson Mandela Bay is not dissimilar to most large cities in South Africa where there is a significant shortage of student accommodation. There are a number of reasons why this is the case, but I will not dwell on that right now. Rather I would like to just speak about the “Headlines” of what you as a property owner may want to give some thought to in order to help you decide whether you would like to invest in being a part of solving this problem.
The first thing to check would be if your property is adequately accessible to a University or other place of Higher Learning. Institutions of higher learning will very often make public criteria for what they would use to decide whether or not to accredit your accommodation. Proximity to campus or to a shuttle route would very often form part of these criteria.
Once you have found that your property is adequately located, I would advise that you take a look at the Zoning for your property. In Nelson Mandela Bay this information can be requested from the NMBM info center. The uses permitted on your property are defined in the NMBM Zoning Scheme, which can also be obtained from the NMBM.
(Other cities will have similar documents and similar processes – but each place is slightly different.)
By interpreting the zoning scheme you will know how many students (if any) you are permitted to accommodate and what procedures you would need to follow should you want to accommodate more that what you are currently permitted. The objective though is to get municipally approved plans for what it is that you proposed to build and then use those in order to get accredited by the higher learning institution or by NSFAS who provides funding for some students.
Each of the steps above can of course have an entire book written about them (and we have not yet even got to construction!). My aim though is to just get you thinking of the possibility they there is very often a good investment to me made while offering a desperately needed service. As we speak many, many students are accommodated in very poor conditions, because thats all there is. Every quality room therefore that you can provide gives a student the chance to make a success of there studies and perhaps turn around their lives and even the lives of an entire family forever.
Think about it!
noh ARCHITECTS 