Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa June/ July 2019 | Página 7

EDITORIAL
JOHANN RUPERT
VIEW
Who will press
the growth
trigger?
He listed a number of factors that have contributed to this
storm. These included the significant drop in both property
sales and prices, pushbacks on commercial rentals, the length it
took now for consultants, contractors and subcontractors to be
paid and the unsustainable discounts that these professionals
were offering, just to bring in work. This also included the
unaccountable decision-making processes and red tape that
were being encountered at municipality level, which were
subsequently strangling the industry.
Cas Coovadia, Banking Association is focused on
development. While South Africa is one of the world’s
most unequal country there are many economic, policy and
regulatory challenges. Somebody must pull the growth trigger
or catalyst sometime, whether it is the Reserve Bank who
drop interest rates, banks freeing up investment capital or
government providing employment opportunities with private
sector.
Van Zyl says, it is time to bring back people with longer
term vision. We hear stories of people who have made money
but we also need stories on those people that lost money in
property. At Century City, a massively successful development
in Cape Town has a story. In transactions there is always
somebody that wins and somebody who loses, we need
to know why and learn from this. We have outsourced our
property logic to attorneys and accountants.
Van Zyl, goes onto say, the challenge is rather going to
be how to remain honest and keep our eyes focused on the
fact that only by improving our economy will we have the
resources to truly address historic legacies and provide jobs,
health services, education and housing with the sole purpose
of leaving this place a little bit better than we found it.
REIM TV
@REIM_SA
The current slump in the property market opens the way
for innovative property solutions for buyers and sellers, says
Meyer de Waal, a property attorney in Cape Town.
Some property owners have had to consider offers that are
lower than the prices they paid some three to five years ago.
“The 2019 general election was used as an excuse as to why
the property market was underperforming, but now, with
elections behind our back, we still do not see quick turnaround
or improvement, “says de Waal.
One problem that still exists for home buyers is the struggle
to raise a home loan with a financial institution. The impact of
debt exposure and credit behaviour combined with the lack of
property affordability are the main reasons for this.
Billionaire businessman Christo Wiese, our Master
Investor this month, says despite whatever circumstances
we find ourselves in, negativity does not help anybody. Your
positivity is contagious and can help people around you. It
helps you learn from these situations, see more opportunities
and keeps us going forward.
Successful investing.
NEALE PETERSEN
FOUNDER PUBLISHER
ROBERT H SCHULLER
“
Tough times never last, but tough people do
www.reimag.co.za
“
T
op of the agenda was addressing the crisis of the failing
SA property and construction industry at the recent
Western Cape Property Development Forum. The
theme of this year’s conference, ‘The Perfect Storm: Invest-
ment and jobs or bureaucracy and stagnation’, a discussion
appointed to everybody in property in SA. It is a topic that
we can no longer ignore. Deon Van Zyl CEO, compared the
industry a year ago to where it was today.
RealEstateInvestorMagazine
SA Real Estate Investor Magazine JUNE/JULY 2019
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