A nugget of hope in the inner city

I tweeted something this week that stuck with a lot of people: “An abandoned, hijacked CBD building turned into a fully let student housing success story.”

- Ash Müller

And honestly, that sentence alone tells you everything you need to know about both the problem and the opportunity sitting in Johannesburg's inner city.

If you've spent any time in the city centre, especially around Nugget Street, you'll know this isn't just one building but rather, it's a pattern.

The Johannesburg CBD has hundreds of hijacked buildings, broken systems and colossal properties that have lost most of their value.

Perhaps when I shared the news about this little nugget of hope on Nugget Street, many wished we could see more of this.

Remington House is a recovery story. The building was hijacked as early as 2012, along with dozens of others. Over time, it became exactly what we've come to expect in these situations: overcrowded, unsafe and cut off from basic services like water and electricity.

At one point, it was described as one of the most notorious hijacked buildings in the CBD. No proper sanitation, illegal electricity connections and people living in some of the most unhygienic conditions you could find.

Even with all this, the building's bones were great. Structurally, the building was sound. This is important to note because it means not all hijacked buildings are beyond saving. Many are mismanaged, neglected and captured by the wrong systems.

Fast forward to today and the same Remington house building is now a fully let student accommodation success story, with 133 bachelor flats, 14 parking bays, five ground-floor retail shops, a study centre, a gym, free laundry facilities, free uncapped wi-fi, a braai area and other shared amenities.