Higher homotopy groups of Cuntz classes

Let $A$ be a unital simple separable exact C${}^{\ast }$-algebra which is approximately divisible and of real rank zero. We prove that the set of positive elements in $A$ with a fixed non-compact Cuntz class has vanishing homotopy groups. Combined with work of S. Zhang for the case of compact elements, this gives a complete calculation of the homotopy groups of Cuntz classes for these algebras. Examples covered include approximately finite-dimensional (AF) algebras and irrational noncommutative tori.