Housing in Southern Africa August 2016

H O U S I N G in Southern Africa

ED’S NOTES

The property market keeps ticking over…

THE TEAM

It was indeed good news when the Governor of the South African Reserve Bank kept the repo rate unchanged at 7%. With consumers under financial pressure and lack lustre economic growth, the South Africa housing market continues to reflect an ongoing demand for homes to buy and rent.

EDITOR Carol Dalglish housing@crown.co.za ADVERTISING Brenda Grossmann brendag@crown.co.za DESIGN Karen Smith PUBLISHER Karen Grant DEPUTY PUBLISHER Wilhelm du Plessis Colin Mazibuko CIRCULATION

W hile the private sector con- tinues to provide housing opportunities, the Depart- ment of Higher Education and Training has reported a shortage of 427 000 beds annually for student accommodation throughout the country’s 49 campuses. Minister Blade Nzimande has called on the sector to provide bold solutions to tackle the challenges. Leading pro- vider of secure student accommo- dation, CampusKey, recently com- pleted a new residence in Mowbray, Cape Town, which will provide 586 fully furnished, purpose-built stu- dent units. At the Vaal University of Technology in Vanderbijlpark, Stef- fanutti Stocks recently completed 400 units on the campus. In Cape Town the Devmark Prop- erty Groupwill offer 944 apartments at The Block. The affordable housing and Gap market development will provide secure and well located housing in the Northern Suburbs. The R40 million Dido Valley proj- ect in Simon’s Town will provide housing to beneficiaries who were forcibly removed from the area over 40 years ago. The property overlooks the ocean and there are plans for a crèche, clinic, parks and business site. The project forms part of the ExpandedPublicWorks Programme. South Africa’s mounting urban land and infrastructure scarcity has led towards smaller average sized properties and there is currently massive growth in the number of sectional titles. The total value of plans approved for new residential buildings was up by 1,1% to R15,48 billion between January and May. New residential buildings reported as completedwas R9,75billion in the first five months. Harvard University’s Joint Centre for Housing Studies reports that

housing maintenance will reach 8% by the start of 2017. This bodes well for the local market as the study is often a forebearer of what will hap- pen in the South African housing sector. We hope that you enjoy the read!

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Carol Dalglish • Editor

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AVERAGE CIRCULATION (FIRST QUARTER 2016) 3 727

Govan Mbeki Awards 2014 - Best Media - Housing in Southern Africa

August 2016