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Central Cape Town living 'embraced by millenials'
IolProperty - South Africa
Just days after the close of the CCID's fourth annual online residential survey, a number of interesting results have already been highlighted.

"We have yet to analyse the full results," says CCID communications manager, Carola Koblitz, "but what we've seen so far really heartens us and deals with some of the misperceptions that are out there about living in the Cape Town Central City."

One of these, notes Koblitz, is the age group of the majority of residents which still reflects that the largest group of those living in the CBD are millennials (between the ages of 18 and 34), a trend already picked up in the 2015 survey but which has now shown a significant growth. Whereas 44% respondents from the 2015 survey fell into this age range, this number has now risen to 47% of all respondents.
Iol Property

We digitally disrupted ourselves
Government News - Australia
Landgate WA, which runs the state’s land registry, has managed a bit of a coup. The agency has been making a profit and cutting costs while making its customers happier.

The agency decided to act after grappling with ageing ICT systems and observing major changes to the land registry sector, including the advent of e-conveyancing and the increasing privatisation of land registers.

Local challenges had also tightened the screws on government spending, including diminishing revenue from mining and a softening WA property market.

Instead of sticking its head in the sand, in 2013 Landgate went all-in and opted for a multi-tenanted, cloud-based land registration system (LRS) to support e-conveyancing and automate processes, both paper and electronic.
Government News

Residential building statistics
Absa - South Africa
Subdued residential building activity in the first three quarters of 2016

Building activity in the South African market for new housing remained largely subdued in the first three quarters of 2016. The planning phase of new housing, reflected by the volume of building plans approved, contracted on a year-on-year basis up to September, whereas the number of new housing units completed showed very low single-digit growth over the 9-month period. These trends are based on data published by Statistics South Africa in respect of building activity related to private sector-financed housing (see explanatory notes).

The volume of new housing units for which building plans were approved, contracted by 10,7% year-on-year (y/y), or 4 905 units, to 41 139 units in the period January to September from a year ago. This decline in building plans approved was largely the result of a sharp drop of 26,5% in the planning of new houses of less than 80m². The substantially smaller number of plans approved for housing at the lower end of the market in the nine months up to September is concerning in view of the housing need and consequent demand in this segment of the market. The number of plans approved in the segment for houses larger than 80m² contracted by just more than 6% y/y in January to September, with the flat and townhouse segment showing low growth of 3,7% y/y over the same period. These trends in new-housing planning are indicative of prevailing economic conditions, the state household finances and levels of confidence.
Building stats Sept 2016

Investment in residential property continues to shine
Pam Golding - South Africa
Address by Dr Andrew Golding, Chief Executive of the Pam Golding Property group

Building activity in the South African market for new housing remained largely subdued in the first three quarters of 2016. The planning phase of new To say that it’s been a tumultuous year for the planet is definitely an understatement, and yet in the face of a sluggish and uncertain domestic and global growth environment and ongoing socio-political challenges, the residential property market in South Africa continues to exhibit extraordinary resilience and remains one of the few bright spots in an otherwise relatively lacklustre economy.

This is despite five consecutive years of subdued economic growth, a severe drought and repeated bouts of rand weakness, which have ignited renewed price pres­sures and prompted the Reserve Bank to gradually but repeatedly, raise interest rates before stabilising them.

The strength of the housing market is attributable to the continued vibrancy of the country’s major metro areas coupled with an ever growing preference for property as an asset class at a time of extreme financial market volatility.

However, signs are now emerging that the national housing market is be­ginning to lose some momentum in the face of these persistent economic headwinds.
Pam Golding

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