Newly empowered professionals boost home market
Posted On Saturday, 12 June 2004 02:00 Published by eProperty News
Newly empowered professionals boost home market, says Inframax
PROPERTY developer Inframax says it sees itself growing at a rate of about 35% a year and the group remains highly optimistic about the future of residential property in the four main centres in which it operates - Johannesburg and Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth.
A two-day think tank in Durban attended by Inframax's senior managers and chaired by its MD, Dr Willie Els, also confirmed that the turnover of the group's KZN division is likely to remain the highest in the group for at least two to three years.
John Weaver, executive director of Inframax, said that the think tank had proved exceptionally useful because it had revealed clearly that the group's development managers in all their operating areas had studied their markets thoroughly and now know which areas offer opportunities - and the prices that can be achieved there.
It was encouraging, added Weaver, that although administrative delays by public authorities had time and again impacted negatively on Inframax's bottom line, no single development in the last two years had made a loss. Inframax, he said, is currently operating in the R300 000 to R4 million residential bracket, the unit prices being dependent on the areas.
Suggestions that the property bubble might be about to subside or even burst were, said Weaver, largely discounted by the Inframax management team.
"Although investors are not as numerous as they were a year or two ago and rentals have not appreciated in line with selling prices, the demand for middle range homes is still strong," said Weaver, "and Inframax believe it is likely to remain so. One reason for this is that a 'whole class' of newly empowered professionals, junior and middle managers, technicians and entrepreneurs are now buying homes for the first time.
"This influx of new buyers coupled to the likelihood that interest rates will remain reasonable, will, we believe, make expansion in the market a reality for the foreseeable future." Following the conference, said Weaver, it is now possible to predict that Inframax will in the next 12 to 18 months be involved with the development of 700 residential units with a total value of R416 million.
These figures compare well with the 260 units and the R60m turnover of the last financial year and, said Weaver, will ensure that Inframax is seen as one of the two or three major developers in Kwazulu-Natal and among the top five or six in Gauteng and the Western Cape. Weaver stressed that Inframax's switch to mid-range housing had been a remarkable achievement - until five years ago most of the activity in the Inframax/NewHco group had been focused on state contracts for low cost housing.
This article was originally published on page 5 of The Cape Argus on June 12, 2004
Publisher: The Argus
Source: The Argus
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