PROFICA OPENING REGIONAL OFFICE IN ZIMBABWE
Profica is establishing an office in
Zimbabwe, making it the eighth regional
office for the company in Africa and beyond.
Leading the charge in Zimbabwe is Profica
senior project manager, Tinashe Manyande,
who has a special talent for building up
Profica’s presence in Africa. Previously
Manyande set up Profica’s Accra, Ghana
office which has been operating for 5
years with an impressive track record and
growing portfolio of clients. Prior to heading
off to Ghana, Manyande had worked as a
project manager at the Profica head office
in Johannesburg.
Manyande says, “As a company with an
entrepreneurial mindset, Profica looks for
opportunities even in the most challenging
jurisdictions. A key aspect in establishing
our offices in Zimbabwe is to ensure that
we know and understand the environment
while also looking at the long-term property
development potential. Large-scale property
developments typically take between 24 and
36 months to complete; this simply means
for a development and project management
company; the work begins now.”
While Ghana’s buoyant property sector
made the establishment of offices there
a logical step for Profica, Zimbabwe
poses a more challenging
environment due to a troubled
economy, elevated inflation,
high unemployment levels and
currency shortages. Manyande
says that Profica is well-
established on the continent
and has operated within many
challenging contexts. “Thanks
to embedded teams and a
solid understanding of market
needs, we are equipped to
grasp opportunities as soon as
they present themselves and we
believe the same will hold true
for Zimbabwe.”
The good news is that
Tinashe Manyande, Profica Senior Project Manager
there are remedies in place
potential in the future underpinned by stable
for Zimbabwe, as evidenced by a recent
agreement with the International Monetary
economic fundamentals and driven by the
Fund (IMF) on macroeconomic policies
fact that the country’s retail, commercial and
and structural reforms that can underpin a
industrial property sectors have been largely
Staff Monitored Program (SMP). This aims
dormant over the last 20+ years.
to implement a coherent set of policies
www.profica.com
to facilitate a return to macroeconomic
stability, a critical ingredient for a robust and
functioning property sector.
Despite Zimbabwe’s current constrained
environment, Manyande sees enormous
2019 GREEN BUILDING IN SOUTH AFRICA: GUIDE TO COSTS & TRENDS LAUNCHED
The GBCSA, ASAQS and the University
of Pretoria’s (UP) Faculty of Engineering,
Built Environment and Information
Technology recently launched the 2019
edition of Green Building in South Africa:
Guide to Costs & Trends. This follows the
1st edition that was issued in 2016. The
document provides interesting trends and
valuable insights about the influence of green
design and construction on both capital and
operational costs.
“The guide is available in electronic
format and it will be of great benefit to
the built environment. The thorough, peer-
8
reviewed research and presentation of the
results make it a one-of-a-kind publication
on an international level,” says Karl Trusler,
Edutech Director at the ASAQS.
Challenging the ‘Green Cost Premium’
With increased awareness and education in
the built environment regarding the green
building movement, a perception that
green building attracts a significant cost
premium when compared to conventional
construction emerged. To address this
concern, The Cost of Green Building Study
Committee was established in 2014. The
2019 edition includes the Committee’s
convincing results regarding the business
case for green building.
“The green cost premium appears to be
progressively diminishing over time, largely
because of growing maturity in the industry,”
says Danie Hoffman, Senior Lecturer at
the University of Pretoria’s Department of
Construction Economics who is the lead
researcher on the project.
Size and Location Matters
The report also confirmed the 2016 finding of
a strong negative correlation between green
cost premium and construction size. The
larger projects managed to achieve a Green
Star certification at a much lower average
green cost premium when compared to
smaller projects.
The data however also confirmed that
the cost premium for buildings smaller than
5,000m 2 has reduced significantly from 9,3%
(2009/14 data) to 4,6% (2015/18 data).
We hope the report will help guide future
real estate decision making towards more
sustainable, future-ready buildings in South
Africa,” concludes Hoffman. The guide can
be downloaded from the ASAQS website.
www.asaqs.co.za
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