Renico Construction Newsletter- March 2023

So far this year South Africans had to navigate their way around daily loadshedding, potholes, floods, double digit food inflation and rising interest rates. The Andre de Ruyter bombshell interview which lead to his immediate removal from office only confirmed what most South Africans have known for years. It was however shocking to hear of the extent of corruption and theft and the apparent acceptance by high ranking politicians for the crimes being committed.

Even during tough economic times, housing will remain a basic need by all. During periods of rising interest rates, the rental market will be the star performer but as history has taught us, interest rates are cyclical in nature with a decrease in rates expected after a period where the rates had stabilised. As mentioned in one of my recent newsletters, I believe that we should see the stabilising of rates throughout this year with the possibility of reductions towards the end of this year or early 2024. Currently we find ourselves in a buyers-market with a high supply of stock. Prospective buyers will have a variety of properties to choose from and savvy buyers will shop around until they find their dream home at a price they can afford.  

Regular sales are still being concluded at our Ndalo residential estate in Albertsdal with the total sales now exceeding the 65% mark. Once we reach the 75% sold out milestone we plan to launch the iThemba residential project adjacent to Ndalo.

I am very happy to report that all cluster homes within the Brendavere Estate development in Fourways are either completed and occupied, or currently under construction. The last of the vacant stands within the exquisite estate are finally under construction and with only seven homes still available to purchase, it will only be a matter of time before the Sold-Out notifications will be posted over the site advertisement boards.

In last month's newsletter I mentioned that we were close in securing tenants for the final two vacant shops within the Vyfhoek Retail Centre, I can now confirm that leases are now in place for both an AC/DC Electrical supply store and a Family Lifestyle store specializing in electronics, homeware, bakeware and travel accessories.

This concludes a three-year period which commenced shortly before the Covid-19 pandemic in which both the Vyfhoek Shopping and Retails Centres were successfully developed. Although we do not have any commercial or industrial projects planned for the immediate future we are investigating a number of opportunities to shortlist as future projects.

Although currently listed as an existing project we have re-formulated the offering of our Rainhill residential units in Linden, Randburg. Not only were we able to pass some welcome savings down to our clients, we also identified the need of a reliable back-up source of electricity to help navigate the adverse effects of loadshedding.  With the many energy saving features already incorporated into the development we have decided to also commission a stand-by generator, adequate in size, to power the entire complex during loadshedding and power interruptions. The running costs of the generator will not place a burden on the levy budget as residents will be charged different pre-paid rates during City Power and generator supply times. The challenge of metering consumption during the different electricity supplies proved to be quite challenging but was eventually solved upon the sourcing of a new pre-paid metering system which was designed specifically for our needs.