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Approved building plans decrease in July

Approved building plans decrease in July

The City of Windhoek has approved a total of 245 building plans in July, 25 fewer than in June. In monetary terms, approvals decreased by N$32.6 million to N$141.1 million, an 18.8% decline from June.

The number of completions for the month of July stood at 253, valued at N$328.2 million. Moreover, during the last 12 months, 2,007 building plans have been approved, decreasing by 0.3% in terms of number of approvals, but increasing by 6.9% in terms of value.

While there has been a slight up-tick in cumulative approvals over the last 3 months, the growth was driven mainly by approvals in additions to properties and new residential units which are of lower relative value. Growth in commercial and industrial construction activity remains extremely subdued.

According to IJG Research, City of Windhoek’s data shows that the average waiting period from submission to approval for residential and commercial units was 137 days, meaning that most of the submissions were done just before the lockdown period.

“It thus remains to be seen how many of these approvals will result in actual building activity as both businesses and consumers are still recovering from the impact of the lockdowns and are unlikely to still be in the financial position to go ahead with these building projects. We expect construction activity to remain under pressure over the short-term,” IJG said in a note.


 

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Donald Matthys

Donald Matthys has been part of the media fraternity since 2015. He has been working at the Namibia Economist for the past three years mainly covering business, tourism and agriculture. Donald occasionally refers to himself as a theatre maker and has staged two theatre plays so far. Follow him on twitter at @zuleitmatthys