SA Affordable Housing January / February 2017 // Issue: 62 | Page 8

ASSOCIATIONS

2017 set to be a better
year for construction
South Africa’s economy is poised to grow by between two to three
percent in real terms next year, which will have a knock-on effect in
the building and construction sectors and lead the way out of the
protracted downturn the market has experienced.

T

his is according to the acclaimed
economist, Dr Roelof Botha,
managing director of GOPA Group SA,
who was speaking at last year’s Readymix
Conference hosted by Sarma, where he
encouraged delegates to look out for
opportunities as the markets turn.
“Despite the largely negative
sentiment that exists in South Africa at
present the economy is still in relatively
good shape and has, in fact, faired far
better than other emerging market peers.
Due to the diversity of our economy we
have largely ridden out the storm thanks
to sectors such as agriculture and services
industries, which provided a counter
balance to ill performers.
“Other factors also indicate reasons to
be bullish, such as increased gold demand
which is at the second highest level in the
history of the world. Just recently China
purchased 1 400 tons of gold and Russia
1 000 tons, among others. This is good
news for our mining sector and as
commodity prices begin to swing back up
it will get even better,” says Dr Botha.
“On the building front the number of
building plans being passed is looking
better and will lead to increased activity
in future when they are converted to
actual building projects. Another
indication of improvement is that
hardware sales are turning upwards. “This
is an inherently stable market and the
Dr Roelof Botha. Image: Sarma
slightest bit of improvement in the
economy should translate to positive
growth in the sector.”
“There is a lot of positivity and a lot of money to be made.
As for the negative sentiments,
We predict that consumer price index (CPI) will go down
Dr Botha predicts that these will prove to be largely
and as a result interest rates will not rise again in the near
unfounded and that any possible downgrades will not
future. At present, our per capita disposable income ratio is
happen in the near future. Also, he expects the rand will
good, the index of manufacturing volume is rising; and
not go into freefall as many naysayers might suggest. The
metals prices, of the type mined in South Africa, are up by
only caveat, of course, is the unpredictable political
20%. That means overall our macro-economic outlook is
environment and the extent to which markets will react to
better than one reads in the media.”
the internal strife within the national government.

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JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2017

AFFORDABLE
SA HOUSING