Why has Cape Town's green building been cancelled?

It's not often that you hear about a huge residential development in the centre of Cape Town being cancelled. Especially one that had already broken ground and was poised to make African property development history by being the first biophilic — or nature connected — building in Africa.

- Ash Müller

But that's what has happened with The Fynbos on 142 Bree Street.

What was once marketed as Africa's first truly green residential tower — a sleek, visionary project with sustainability at its core — has now been called off.

Construction has been slow, and there has been little activity on the erf over the past year. Aside from a couple of bulldozers occasionally sprinkled on the site, there has been little movement.

On 13 May, the developer of The Fynbos informed purchasers that the original plan had been cancelled.

The reason? A shift in the market and strategy. According to a notice sent to purchasers, the original developer, Lurra Capital, made the call to withdraw. The site has since been handed over to a new player: Tricolt. It's a familiar name in the jungle of Jozi. And this will be its second Mother City project in the pipeline.

The Fynbos wasn't just another boutique build with a couple of dozen apartments and some roof-top amenities. A cancellation of this magnitude is a big deal.

With 689 residential units right in the middle of the city centre, it would have been one of the biggest projects ever launched to market over the past decade.

For a city already grappling with housing pressure and a tricky approval process for new large-scale projects, this cancellation isn't just a bump in the road; it's a thunderclap.

The original site had a decent-sized building on it that housed a Supa Quick Fitment centre and a debt-management company in the office section at the top. Spear Reit was the original owner of this building and sold it to a shelf company with one director for a whopping R150 million. A few months later, The Fynbos scheme was launched to market. That's a pretty high land acquisition cost.