Housing in Southern Africa October-November 2016

H O U S I N G in Southern Africa

ED’S NOTES

Developers and analysts

The teamat Nedbank Corporate and Investment Banking’s Affordable Housing Development Finance division recently partnered once again with International Housing Solutions to invite industry stakeholders, media and developers to the 8 th annual I H S conference.

THE TEAM

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

T he IHS annual event held at the Johannesburg Country Club is one of those highlights on the housing calendar. Each year Rob Wesselo, Soula Proxenos and their team have excelled in rolling out a robust informative and entertaining day. Typically the banking sector re- ceives a roasting from developers on risk costs, decline rates on mortgage applications, and funding challenges. Anton Crouse from Cosmopolitan Projects led the roasting. Keynote speaker and political commentator, Justice Malala offered insights on what we can expect from all the shenanigans at Luthuli House. The politically savvy Malala an- ticipates that President Jacob Zuma will not be usurped and the mighty Nkandla resident will only leave office after the general election in 2019. The factions in the ruling party are split between Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Cyril Ramaphosa camps. Malala proceeded to track the President’s bloops and blunders since firing former Minister of Finance, Nhlanhla Nene, itwas entertaining and compel- ling in a Greek tragedy fashion – as Zuma’s actions wiped out billions of rands in the economy. Malala’s presentation showed President Zuma sitting on his cell phone chatting, while the head of the free world, United States President, Barack Obama, stood waiting at the table to speak. Zuma showed little or no respect. While the next slide showed Zuma bowing respectfully from the waist to Chinese President, Xi Jinping. While these insights speak volumes, it is the fact that the people are not being heard by the ruling party – that caused three million ANC voters to stay away from the polls. Adding to this are the students who are not prepared to give up their quest for free education. Unfortu- nately all of these things threaten investment – for services, housing and utilities. South African comedian Alfred

Adriaan’s witty repartee and family jokes brought tears of laugher and livened up the audience in between guest speakers and panel discus- sions. Nedbank economi s t , Ni cky Weimar showed how the global and local economy impacts on what is currently happening in the housing sector and where we are going from here. Despite all the bad news and the potential downgrade to ‘junk status’ by ratings agency there is light at the end of the tunnel. There are a lot of great companies in the housing sector, who persevere and roll out housing with tight profit margins, deliver affordable products, and use their business acumen to maximise and leverage deals that benefit end users. One fascinating presentation about fibre optics showed that ‘fibre optics is like the oil of the 21 st century and a 10% increase in high speed internet connections increases GDP by 1,3% without it the economy will remain in the doldrums’. Another huge housing event took place in Port Elizabeth as the Depart- ment of Human Settlements and the National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) Centre for Research and Housing Innovation rolled out an exciting programme.

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Carol Dalglish • Editor

AVERAGE CIRCULATION (SECOND QUARTER 2016) 3 727

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

October/November 2016