SAPOA CONVENTION AND PROPERTY EXHIBITION

Last week I attended the SAPOA Convention.  It lived up to expectations and the promise contained on the website, namely:

The 46^th Annual SAPOA International
Convention and Property Exhibition
Cape Town - ICC, 10 - 12 June 2014
South Africa's premier property conference of the year

The SAPOA Annual Convention and Property Exhibition, now in its forty sixth year, has become established as the premium gathering for investors, property owners, lenders, services providers, developers and thought leaders from around the world.

This year's Convention will once again provide a timely opportunity for national and international commercial property professionals to come together and discuss the latest investment opportunities and challenges. The Convention will analyze how commercial practitioners are looking to diversify and strengthen their portfolios, whilst global economies continue to ride out the storm and chart a smooth path to recovery.

Our line up of speakers never disappoints, as they will passionately share their big dreams and elaborate visions on the latest trends in commercial property and create a platform to learn more about development within South Africa's government and private sector.

The Oscars of the property industry, our Innovative Excellence Awards will yet again recognize buildings that make up the timeless beauty of land and through the Property Journalism Awards, SAPOA will once more acknowledge South African property journalists who have made significant contribution to the commercial and industrial property market.            
 

 

 

New property development at Pretorias Church Square

I am very impressed with the Pretoria CBD!

I go to the CBD several times a week and it seems as if vast improvements are occurring.  The streets are in an absolute mess due to BRT construction but once this is completed in the next couple of months, the CBD should be quite impressive.

Numerous "old" office blocks have been converted into attractive affordable apartments. These buildings were largely vacant after Joburg stole the Provincial Government from Pretoria and the conversions have breathed new life into these dead areas.  In most cases, the residential component has been accompanied by a retail offering on street level with neat modern facades and upgrades to the pavements.

Of course, there are still problems and some of my female conveyancing colleagues complain of crimes such as snatch and run crooks.  My biggest issue is traffic congestion (during BRT construction) and the removal of a vast number of street parking bays by the City but there is an improvement to the aesthetics.

I have noticed that City Property are involved in a lot of these refurbishments and the project described in the article below would therefore seem to be right up their alley.

Gareth Shepperson
Commercial and Property Attorney













New property development at Pretorias Church Square

Part of Pretoria's heritage, the Ons Eerste Volksbank building near Church Square, will be preserved and form part of the new R145 million mixed-use development that includes retail, offices and apartments.

An artist's impression of 1 on Mutual, the new development near Church Square.

The building site for the City Property development - located at the junction of Madiba and Mutual streets, opposite the Pretoria News offices and advocates' chambers - was handed over to the contractors yesterday afternoon.

Pretoria airport for sale

There is a massive amount of expansion to the North of Pretoria, which is moving further and further away from O.R. Tambo or Lanseria Airports and so there may potentially be a market for an increased number of local flights from Wonderboom.  On the downside, whilst there are no doubt some extremely wealthy individuals there, I am not sure that the general income levels equate to sufficient volumes of people requiring extra flights.  I am sure that someone will do (or has done) the maths.

Gareth Shepperson
Commercial and Property Attorney













Pretoria airport for sale

Wonderboom National Airport will be put up for sale after an investigation found that the private sector would obtain funding required to develop the facility far better than the current owner, City of Tshwane.

In addition, a process has been initiated to engage with interested airlines to introduce scheduled flights at the airport.

Pretoria storage building UGLY

I am no architect and I don't have an artistic bone in my body (I battle to draw a decent stick-figure) ... BUT ... I do happen to drive past this building on most days and it is UGLY!

The Berlin Wall comes to mind.

Gareth Shepperson
Commercial and Property Attorney













Pretoria storage building ugly

A storage facility under construction in Brooklyn, Pretoria, was unsightly, with no architectural aesthetic, and would be detrimental to the historic residential character of the area, said city architects.

The new storage building going up on the corner of Justice Mohammed and Jan Shoba streets which has architects up in arms.

Prominent architects in Pretoria said the facility, at the intersection of Justice Mohammed (Charles) and Jan Shoba (Duncan) streets, should never have been allowed in the area.

Surprise acceleration of house prices

I always look at the volume of transactions, rather than the value thereof in order to assess the health of the market.  Of course, the value is important because it is on that basis that you evaluate the performance of an investment but when the volumes pick up it indicates a renewed interest in the markets that will eventually translate into a more sustainable increase in value.

Before all the economists take me to task, I must emphasize that is just an opinion and I have no empirical evidence to support my view.  It is just from experience that I know that when there was a significant and continuous increase in prices, this coincided with large volumes of transactions going through the Deeds Offices of South Africa.

I don't have the latest statistics ... BUT I know that we are still only at about half the volume of Deeds Office lodgements compared to the height of the property cycle in 2008.  While volumes remain low, I don't believe that sufficient interest in property exists to drive a meaningful and enduring growth in Property Prices.  (If there is such a thing as enduring in a cyclical market?)

Gareth Shepperson
Commercial and Property Attorney













Surprise acceleration of house prices

The average house price for May rose 8.1 percent year-on-year, First National Bank (FNB) said yesterday.

This was slightly higher than a revised 7.9 percent for April, the bank's household and property sector strategist, John Loos, said in a statement.

Property adds R191bn to GDP, research finds

I am absolutely delighted that this research was commissioned.  It is a commonly held belief within the Property Industry, that government does not always take the industry as seriously as it should.  This is largely because nobody really knew what contribution the industry was making.  However, now that the contribution is quantifiable, we have the facts and figures to back up our position.

Gareth Shepperson
Commercial and Property Attorney













Property adds R191bn to GDP, research finds

The property industry, comprising residential and non-residential sectors, contributed R191.4 billion to the country's economy in 2012 and a further R46.5bn to the fiscus through various direct and indirect taxes.

Property laws imperil plans worth billions

This is an extremely important Article in my opinion.  There needs to be a uniform path that Property Developers walk in order to reach the goal of creating new developments.  I believe that it is the intention behind SPLUMA that the myriad of Acts and Ordinances applicable across South Africa be consolidated to a certain extent.  However, it is not only the Planning Laws as such that need to be streamlined but all the extraneous legislation that impacts on the process.

Gareth Shepperson
Commercial and Property Attorney











Property laws imperil plans worth billions



Legislative delays and bureaucratic legislation were placing billions of rand in new property developments at risk of being scrapped, the SA Property Owners Association (Sapoa) has warned.

Neil Gopal, the chief executive, said this week that the country could not afford these delays, especially with high unemployment and lacklustre growth, and the issue needed to be addressed urgently.