SA Affordable Housing September / October 2020 | Page 5

EDITOR'S NOTE SA Affordable Housing returns Eamonn Ryan, Editor after lockdown SA Affordable Housing is back in print with a September issue. Like everyone else, we took a knock during lockdown, went online-only in May, and missed July to give our stretched contract advertisers a breather. Furthermore, unless industry players take a more bullish stance of our industry by advertising, you may find the magazine slightly slimmer than it could be. A magazine such as ours, which provides a vital, valuable communication platform to the affordable housing industry, depends not only on subscribers, but advertisers to pay the bills. We are all cutting every unnecessary expense during the pandemic. However, we appeal to the industry to recognise the value of having a national voice and in building their brand among the residential development community. Until advertising revenue returns to pre-pandemic levels, we shall have to be much more selective in the articles we publish, and even on those, cut their length to the bone. What has changed since we last published? Fear of a return to the dreaded lockdown in certain locations has meant that many affordable housing developers report having been exceptionally busy – completing projects in haste before they can again be shut down. Even though demand for professional construction services has already started to increase, there is continued anxiety. One of the short- and long-term impacts of the lockdown is that more than ever, compliance to regulation will decide who wins construction contracts. That is favourable to a magazine such as SA Affordable Housing which reports only on projects using compliant products. Surviving firms will be those who have learned through experience that a ‘lean and mean’ structure is essential for survival in the volatile building industry – but also continuing to promote and market themselves. As to how the Covid-19 pandemic will affect the future of design of housing, analysts agree that the long-term impact will less be about design and more the need to stimulate the lower-end affordable housing market, as a home is itself the best prevention of disease. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that a further 23 million Africans will be driven into poverty as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The affordable housing segment is extremely pricesensitive and consequently this is likely to grow as incomes come under pressure following global economy lockdowns. Nonetheless, this month’s project demonstrates an uptrend in sales of units and deposits being put down – as apparently many people used the lockdown to ponder their futures and decided they need their own home. In times of economic hardship, people commonly seek to get out of liquid currency and into hard assets such as property. To spur this market and bring down the cost of housing requires a PPP approach. On the one hand, private developers will continue to innovate with more affordable materials and building techniques, but the government needs to provide more low-cost land (which currently accounts on average for 20% of the cost of any project). Innovations brought about by private developers include to increasingly ‘manufacture’ pre-cast homes in a factory rather than build them brickby-brick on site. This has the potential to reduce costs of construction by 10% to 20%. It also requires innovation with the cost of finance, and banks will need to play a large role here. Recent cuts in the bank rate have prompted a surge in demand for affordable housing, as well as buying larger homes, pointing to the close correlation between affordability and new house sales. Eamonn [email protected] www.saaffordablehousing.co.za SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2020 3