Project Information
Milkwood – designed as a modern, integrated and inclusive mixed-use mixed-income extension to the City of Cape Town.
Over a decade or so Milkwood will capture and celebrate the multicultural heritage of the people of the Cape region.
Milkwood an integral part of CoCT, with 800,000 residents living in 200,000 housing units includes
· Creating 200,000 plus new permanent jobs
Project Approach
Milkwood is designed incorporating RegenAfrica’s Regenerative SMARTER Builds (RSBs) and communiTgrow Africa’s 6-Pillar Model of a fully integrated urban economy.
Spatially and conceptually it has been designed using a robust and detailed project finance model to ensure that an affordable housing premised urban settlement is developed profitably and sustainably from the outset.
Milkwood extends Cape Town in the only growth corridor that is able to address the growth
Based on initial detailed environmental developmental studies and assessments, a design concept has been developed by an integrated professional team positioned to submit applications and proposals.

Milkwood has been designed across economic activities to facilitate:
· Commerce and industry
An associate mortgage lending company will offer innovative financing structures to residents that otherwise would not be able to secure finance. A renewable energy mix including district hot water supply will be part of this walkable, bicycle friendly and affordable publis transit oriented regenerative green urban build.
Site Location
Cape Town is surrounded by valuable farmland, biodiversity corridors and mountainous terrain that are unsuitable for development and thus has extremely limited space for growth in the urban build. The City of Cape Town’s Medium to Long-Term Growth Options Study indicates that there are only two directions in which the urban build can grow; up the West Coast (Western Growth Corridor) and limited area northwards (Northern Growth Corridor).
Milkwood is located in the more suitable Western Growth Corridor, on land identified by the City’s Spatial Development Framework for future urban development, on 3,100 hectares of along the N7 National Highway.
Milkwood is the largest single development opportunity in South Africa, and the regenerative whole-systems design approach ensures that it is a fully functional and sustainable urban build from the outset.

Milkwood at a Glance
An ideal urban built location
- 3,100 hectares (2,000 ha developable)
- Situated on the N7 national highway
- 50,000 social housing units
- 100,000 affordable housing units
- 50,000 market housing units
- 800,000 residents
- 200,000 local jobs created
- 4 million sqm of lettable commercial space
- Connected to Cape Town CBD and Atlantis by MyCiti Bus
- Railway station allocated
- Ecologically friendly Green Urban Build
- Walkable urban design
- Education (early childhood to tertiary)
- Health and community facilities
- Over 600 public open spaces
- ZAR 200bn total construction costs
- Unlocks FDI (Foreign Direct Investment)
The African Union Agenda 2063 is premised on 7 Africa Aspirations
- A Prosperous Africa, based on inclusive growth and sustainable development
- An integrated continent, politically united, based on the ideals of Pan Africanism and the vision of Africa’s Renaissance
- An Africa of good governance, democracy, respect for human rights, justice and the rule of law
- A Peaceful and Secure Africa
- Africa with a strong cultural identity, common heritage, values and ethics
- An Africa whose development is people driven, relying on the potential offered by people, especially its women and youth and caring for children
- An Africa as a strong, united, resilient and influential global player and partner

The African Development Bank’s “High 5’s”





UN 17 Development Goals


Challenges
The challenge for Africa is to carry the momentum of economic growth into the daily lives of its people.
Africa is poised to harness its ongoing economic growth into accelerated poverty reduction. Africa’s wealth in the extractive and mining industries is being bolstered with investment into infrastructure–related projects in construction, transport, electricity, telecommunication and water. Africa’s burgeoning middle class is also attracting investment flows to rapidly expanding consumer sectors such as retail and banking.
Governments in Africa have continually improved their macroeconomic policies to attract domestic and foreign investment. According to the World Banks 2020 report Africa’s Pulse, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows are to decline by 5.1%. The negative impact of the COVID-19 crisis on household welfare is expected to be dramatic. African policymakers need to develop a strategy to protect and provide jobs.
Africa’s youth explosion and ensuing demographic dividend has accelerated urbanization in existing urban nodes. Projected to increase from just over a billion people to 2 billion by 2050 with 70% of Africa’s population will reside in urban areas. It is anticipated that this growth will take place in existing cities and newly established secondary cities, intermediary nodes within developing corridors. As cities expand, the demands for energy, food, employment and education increase. The public sector is motivated, but not resourced well enough to deliver on the ever–growing demands of an urban build. Integrated large–scale delivery underpinned by an economic model delivering ongoing employment is the challenge facing urbanization and the future economic growth of Africa.
