Architect and Builder August/September 2019 | Page 18

If it’s all doom and
gloom, why so many
cranes on the skyline?
By Patrick McInerney
Co-Arc International Architects
T
his year’s SAPOA Con-
vention was probably the
most downbeat that I’ve
attended in my many years
in the building industry. The
majority of speakers gave
us bad news – ranging from water scarcity
problems through to concerns about the
oversupply of property, the industry’s
talent drain and government’s lack of
policy certainty.
I know I wasn’t the only attendee to
come away disheartened. It’s feasible that
some negativity was orchestrated to send
government a message. But there were
18
probably people who decided to leave
South Africa based on what they were
told in that conference room.
As I pondered what I’d heard, I realised
that all this negativity is ridiculous! Why,
I asked myself, if things are so bad do we
have a record number of building cranes
operating in places such as Sandton,
Rosebank and Cape Town? How, if the
building industry is on the brink of implo-
sion as some would have us believe, is
it possible to have more cranes working
on construction projects than at any time
since the 1960s? Have we got less policy
certainty than in 1994?
I am certainly not one to put my head in
the sand as to the problems we’re facing
as an industry. But I believe we’re in
danger of creating a self-fulfilling prophecy
by ignoring the many positives and talking
ourselves into a self-created downturn.
Those hard-working cranes
Part of the reason for the abovementioned
cranes is the enormous property boom
in the central nodes. Many new A-grade
buildings are coming on stream and being
filled by tenants previously in B-grade
buildings. So there’s now an oversupply
of B-grade property and, because of
Cranes