Let’s celebrate!

 A NOTE FROM OUR CEO

Four years ago, St John, Kim and I had an idea to reinvent living and working spaces in the city we love - Cape Town.

On a conference call in May 2020, St John came up with the name "Neighbourgood" and the proverbial penny dropped.

Three words we absolutely loved all in one.

Neighbour.
Neighbourhood.
GOOD.

And from that lightbulb moment, our mission to bring GOOD to neighbourhoods was born, and we have never looked back.

From the very beginning, the three of us have all shared a common belief that the world could be better. That the spaces we create could be better. That word GOOD has been intentional from day one. And it's as important today as it was when the penny dropped back in May of 2020.

Four months into the Covid pandemic, we made the beginning of our journey official on the 1st July 2020 by incorporating the company and opening the doors to our first official site.

As life and business goes, nothing was easy. We did everything ourselves. Kim was up late at night designing our website and content while still holding down her own business. St John was screwing in lightbulbs and painting walls at our properties whilst he held down a busy director's at another company. I was the only full time staff member, answering leasing adverts by day and reconciling bank statements by night, in an effort to produce property reports for our one and only client. And all of this was during a global pandemic, while we donned our face masks and used copious amounts of hand sanitiser.

Today, on the 1st July 2024, our core values remain the same as they were when we started. We still think the world can be better. That the spaces we help transform in the cities we live in can change the way people feel. That we can run a company of GOOD people where we are all treated with kindness.

It has truly been a privilege to have been able to zoom out of a canvas like Cape Town and reimagine its neighbourhoods in a way that positively impacts how we live, work and experience. Such is the power of thoughtful design combined with well-executed community principles.

On our 4th birthday, I can’t help but reminisce about all the major milestones that we’ve hit in the last four years and how far we have come together;

2020, July 1st

The day we started a company that would bring good to neighbourhoods by making living and working spaces better.

365 days later we had opened 4 locations. This includes 4 buildings repurposed, 260 living suites, 270 workstations and a community of almost 300 neighbours.

2022 & 2023

From a single location in 2020 to 15 locations in 2022, we averaged opening five locations per year or, one every 2.4 months. We scaled our unit numbers from 1 to 1000 (inclusive of both living and workspaces). We played a pivotal role in the repositioning of 11 different buildings across Cape Town, spread across four distinct neighbourhoods, with a consistent emphasis on adaptive reuse. We've crafted Cape Town's first connected living and workspace product, catering to the evolving needs of digital nomads and remote workers. Since 2020, we have held over 800 events and activations for our community across Cape Town.

2023, July 1st -  2024, July 1st

The past year has been nothing short of crazy, exciting and memorable in every way! We have grown in leaps and bounds. Here are some of milestones and incredible moments from the last year:

We have grown the GOOD team to 190+ incredible people.
We have 15 Neighbourgood locations in South Africa.
Over the past year, we opened up and expanded 6 locations in Cape Town. Our in-house projects, design and facilities team opened Neighbourgood Ravenscraig in November, Neighbourgood 84 Harrington in December, Neighbourgood 1st Crescent Camps Bay in December, Neighbourgood 113 Loop in March, Neighbourgood Gable in June (our second Franschhoek property) and Neighbourgood Franschhoek Phase 03 (De Wet Street) is launching soon.
We opened up our first 3 locations in California, USA - Neighbourgood Madison, Neighbourgood Jefferson and Neighbourgood Harrison in Redwood City.
June 2023: We launched our first investment offering, Neighbourgood Co-ownership.
August 2023: We acquired travel company Local Knowledge and integrated their team into the wider Neighbourgood team, thereby adding “Experience” as one of our verticals.
December 2023: Launched The Neighbourgood Experience, which is the rebrand of Local Knowledge and the official launch of the Neighbourgood App
January 2024: We launched The Real Good Podcast by Neighbourgood with our CEO Murray as the podcast host, and featured a number of incredible South African entrepreneurs, such as Tim Harris, Kim Whitaker, Quintin Rossi and Jacques van Embden.
January 2024: Neighbourgood Work Club launched and has been a game changer for digital nomads, freelancers and small business owners across the city looking for a wholesome, productive but mostly affordable workspace.
May 2024: We launched our own Food & Beverage vertical by hiring an in-house team.
June 2024: Launched Nice, a brand by Neighbourgood, as a stand-alone cafe concept at two of our properties (Neighbourgood 113 Loop and Neighbourgood East City).
June 2024: We launched our Connected Living Packages offering.

As a company, we are now 1000 units strong across two cities, Cape Town and California. We have built a team of 190 exceptionally good people, who strive every day to leave people better than we found them. We are so thankful to our extended team of suppliers, professionals and partners who we have worked with to reposition the buildings we have transformed and build an incredible community in the process.

Lastly, to the community of thousands of people from both South Africa and across the world who have stayed with us, who work in our workspaces, who attend our experiences and events, who eat and drink at our cafes… you are everything. You’re the good people that we do all of this for.

Like every start up, we still face challenges every day. We're still bootstrapped. We're still learning. But most of all, we're still GOOD.

Chasing a dream together to change the world for the better is never easy an easy task. But it's sure as hell worth it. Ordinary people like us are capable of achieving extraordinary things when we set our minds on doing so and we have the courage to persevere.

Wherever you find yourself on your journey, we hope you’ll celebrate with us today as Neighbourgood turns 4.

Happy birthday, Neighbourgood!