The value of building plans passed by larger municipalities in South Africa during the first ten months of 2005 increased by 55.1% year-on-year (y/y) to 56.041 billion rand, Statistics South Africa said.

Large increases were reported for non-residential buildings (+77.9%), additions and alterations (+63.2%) and residential buildings (+46.3%).

Large increases for non-residential buildings were reported for office and banking space (+101.6%), industrial and warehouse space (+86.4%) and shopping space (+79.0%).

All nine provinces reported increases in the value of recorded building plans passed for the period January to October 2005. The y/y increases for the first 10 months varied from 149.6% in Mpumalanga to 27.8% in the Eastern Cape.

The largest contributor to the increase of 55.1% y/y for the national total was Gauteng with a 25.8% contribution, followed by the Western Cape at 13.2%.

Last year's upwardly revised increase was 35.2% from an original estimate of 33.0%, after only an 11.3% rise in 2003.

The largest increase in 2004 in the value of recorded building plans passed was reported for residential buildings (up 41.3% to 19.518 billion constant 2000 rand), followed by additions and alterations (up 29.0% to 8.27 billion constant 2000 rand) and non-residential buildings (up 23.4% to 4.721 billion constant 2000 rand).

South Africa is currently experiencing a housing boom with house prices increasing by 32.2% in 2004 compared with 21.4% y/y in 2003 and 15.2% y/y in 2002 according to South African commercial bank Absa's (ASA) monthly House Price Index (HPI).

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