Western Cape seminar
First URERU seminar of 2020 More than 110 SAPOA members, property practitioners and students attended the first Urban Real Estate Research Unit seminar of the year, sponsored by Quoin Online. Seminar guests were welcomed to UCT by Head of Department of Construction Economics and Management Professor Kathy Michell, before she handed over to Master of Ceremonies Rob McGaffin, who introduced Professor François Viruly and Dave Russell, Director at Baker Street Properties By Mark Pettipher
M M Source graphics: JLL
26
cGaffin kicked off by thanking SAPOA for helping to drive the seminars, then thanked Quoin Online for its continued patronage – the company has been sponsoring the quarterly seminars almost since inception. Quoin Online is a specialised property business encompassing the full spectrum of skills sets required to offer clients the highest level of service for property trading. Individuals with vast experience in specific disciplines joined forces to provide this unique service. Recognising a need in the market for an efficient web-based property transaction system, the partners created a state-of-the-art software that will allow buyers and sellers to transact on property anywhere in the world.
SOUTH AFRICAN PROPERTY REVIEW – FEBRUARY/MARCH 2020
François Viruly covered the property industry’s international trends in the commercial sector. Alarmingly, he mentioned that South Africa is in its 73rd month of recession – the longest cyclical downturn since World War II. He further said the country is not talking about the depth of the cycle, but rather its length; and linked the downturn to the international market, saying that we seem to be trying to get out of our slump during a general global economic slowdown. He highlighted the SAPY trend, commenting that we’re currently showing growth of less that one percent, which doesn’t bode well for the country. Moving onto international trends, Viruly pointed to a number of major shifts, and showed that the best-performing sectors included logistics and residential (specifically student accommodation, affordable housing and retirement complexes). There was also a mention of healthcare and hotels, and an increase in tourism. Viruly concluded his presentation with a statement about South Africa’s property market being problematic. We’re awaiting next month’s international grading, although it is commonly thought that South Africa will once again be downgraded because we will continue to have issues with energy supply. He did reiterate that we’re trying to take corrective measures while the rest of the world is in an economic slowdown.
