{"id":731663,"date":"2023-11-17T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-17T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=731663"},"modified":"2023-11-16T16:27:29","modified_gmt":"2023-11-16T14:27:29","slug":"construction-stumbles-in-south-africa-as-developers-sweat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/731663\/construction-stumbles-in-south-africa-as-developers-sweat\/","title":{"rendered":"Construction stumbles in South Africa as developers sweat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The number of overall building completions and plans passed declined in Q3 despite some areas of positivity amongst builders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Stats SA, the value of buildings reported as completed by larger municipalities declined by -5.7% in real terms in Q3 2023 when measured on a  quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted (qqsa) basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Drops were logged in the Residential (-9.1% qqsa) and additions and alterations (-12.3% qqsa) categories, with the latter supported by the poor performance of the hardware, paint and glass segment of the retail sector (-2.4% qqsa). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Residential property demand continues to be impacted by the fragile economic environment, with consumers still grappling with high-interest rates, which are expected to remain at elevated levels for longer,&#8221; Investec&#8217;s Lara Hodes said. <\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/building-plans.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"703\" height=\"205\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/building-plans.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-731665\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/building-plans.jpg 703w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/building-plans-300x87.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 703px) 100vw, 703px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>In addition, confidence amongst builders in the residential segment has declined, according to the FNB\/BER Building Confidence Index. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-businesstech wp-block-embed-businesstech\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"xRAwbV9w1T\"><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/718190\/trouble-for-construction-in-south-africa\/\">Trouble for construction in South Africa<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;Trouble for construction in South Africa&#8221; &#8212; BusinessTech\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/718190\/trouble-for-construction-in-south-africa\/embed\/#?secret=T9RrHy6Wtd#?secret=xRAwbV9w1T\" data-secret=\"xRAwbV9w1T\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The outlook for work deteriorated according to respondents&#8217; expectations, which aligns with the drop building plans passed reading for Q3, which showed that plans passed dropped by -13.3% qqsa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, looking more positively, activity in the non-residential market segment grew over the period, climbing by 12.3% qqsa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This aligns with the sentiment amongst non-residential builders in the FNB\/BER survey, which jumped from 42 in Q2 to 52 in Q3 &#8211; a multi-year high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Indeed, a review of the office segment, which was heavily affected by the lockdown restrictions imposed<br>during the pandemic, confirms that office vacancy rates improved further in the third quarter,&#8221; Hodes said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The latest SAPOA Office Vacancy Survey revealed that the overall office vacancy rate was at 15.5% (down 10 basis points) at the end of Q3. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Pipeline activity, however, does not look as favourable. It dipped notably when measured on a quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted basis and by -3.2% year-to-date compared to last year,&#8221; Hodes added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Indeed, a notable lift in business confidence is still needed to drive sustainable levels of investment.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/731173\/consumers-in-south-africa-are-under-pressure-but-still-making-their-way-to-woolies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Consumers in South Africa are under pressure \u2013 but still making their way to Woolies<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite some areas of confidence, construction in South Africa has taken a hit. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":650865,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[26,1498],"class_list":["post-731663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-headline","tag-investec"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=731663"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":731679,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731663\/revisions\/731679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}