GDP growth good news for SA’s property market
Positive news to emerge from Statistics SA is that South Africa’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew 3.1% in the second quarter of 2019 (to end-June), compared to a decline of 3.1% in the first quarter.
This means that the country has avoided a technical recession, which is defined by two consecutive quarters of negative growth. Carl Coetzee, the new CEO of national bond originator BetterBond, says it also means that South Africa now has a slightly better chance of avoiding a sovereign debt rating downgrade when Moody’s reviews the economy in November.
Moody’s is the only one of the top three agencies to still award SA an investment-grade rating, and losing that would be an automatic signal for institutional investors to withdraw billions of rands from SA markets.
More
Buying property off-plan? Vital questions to ask the developer
Buying homes off-plan in future developments can result in the buyer getting a really “good bargain” in the current market.
This is according to Rowan Alexander, Director of Alexander Swart Property based in Cape Town’s Northern Suburbs, who says the developer of a new project will often need to sell a fairly high proportion of the proposed homes, in order to kick-start the project and to qualify for development finance. To achieve these sales the developer will in all probability cut the prices to really competitive levels, especially in the initial sales months.
“The chances are, therefore, that the buyer will get real value for money on his or her purchase, a price that is unlikely ever to be repeated,” he says.
More
Africa Proptech Forum: Startups, pitch and meet real estate investors - 1 Oct
Taking place at WeWork’s first African office location, The Link, Johannesburg on the 1st of October 2019, the Africa Proptech Forum is hosted in collaboration with Proptech Africa and the continent’s leading real estate gathering, the 10th annual Africa Property Investment (API) Summit.
Attracting attention from private and institutional investors, funding for Proptech has grown significantly from $20 million in 2008 to an average of $12 billion annually since 2016, with the number startups and seed funding rising each year, according co-founders of Proptech Africa, Sean Godoy and African real estate advisor, Kevin Teevoorengadum.
This year’s Africa Proptech Forum will provide select startups with an opportunity to pitch their disruptive business models to Africa’s most high-profile real estate investors and developers.
More
The short-term rental revolution: A guide for owners and community schemes
This article will take a closer look at the global home short-term rental revolution, why so many community schemes in South Africa are fighting to stop it and why their efforts may be in vain.
It all started with the growth of the sharing economy, which has exploded over the past decade and disrupted many industries around the world, by allowing ordinary people the ability to monetise their goods and services and directly connecting them to consumers. According to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the world’s sharing economy could reach $335 billion in global revenue by 2025.
Other than Uber, Airbnb is the second most successful sharing economy company in the world. Airbnb provides owners with an online platform to rent out their houses, apartments, rooms, tree houses, pillow forts or any other type of space you can imagine. Although there are competitors, Airbnb dominates the global shared hospitality industry, with more than 6 million listings available worldwide, in over 81 000 cities in 191 countries. About 2 million people stay in an Airbnb listing worldwide on any given night – in comparison, the largest hotel group in the world has just over 700 000 total guest rooms across the globe.
More
Leave a comment: