Property market resilient in tough times

The property sector continues to be resilient with the residential market showing satisfactory performance for good quality properties, says RDC Properties CEO Jacopo Pari.

Commenting on the group’s 2021 annual results, Pari said the current trends revealed luxury homeowners are shifting their habits from renting out their properties to taking occupation.

“This led to reduced stock in the market for good quality residential houses,” he said.

Real Estate Institute of Botswana (REIB) president, Sethebe Manake recently told this publication that property hunters can expect the residential sales market to recover this year, following a downtrend in prices driven by the COVID-19 pandemic.

She said the recovery would likely be driven by the hunger for investment, as opportunities are plenty in the market.

“The housing market will remain competitive as there is increased homeownership appetite from the youth and Generation Z,” she said in response to BusinessWeek enquiries.

“Demand from these young households will keep the market competitive and fastpaced.” Manake, who is also the founding director of Vantage

Properties, said the pandemic has eaten into property owners’ incomes and forced some to sell below the prices they would have wanted.

She noted instances where people sold property out of desperation, taking up lower offers rather than waiting up to nine months for offers that may never come.

Last year more sellers opted to dispose of high-income properties in an attempt to reduce pressure on their pockets as they felt squeezed by COVID-19, as a steep 20% drop in prices in the high-income residential property sector evidenced.

Between 2020 and 2021 there was a 50% growth in transactions, indicating a better transactional year.

While the hospitality sector is still recovering from the COVID-19 effects over the last two years, the office and retail sectors seem to be seeing some signs of recovery though with demand for large office spaces without any material impact on rental prices.

Finally, the industrial sector retains a good track record with higher demand for flexi-warehouse units currently observed within the market.