July Approved building plans drop by 20%

WINDHOEK, Aug. 18 – The number of building plans approved during July fell by 53 approvals from the 182 recorded in June, bringing the value of approvals down by almost 20%.
In monetary value, approvals fell by N$154.9 million to N$140.9 million in July from N$295.8 million approved in June. Meanwhile, building completions registered about 36 completions to the value of N$91.1 million in the month under review, which is an increase of N$54.5 million from N$36.6 million worth of completions in June.

“However, looking over a 12-month rolling basis, approvals have fared better in July than during the corresponding period in 2016. Approvals increased by 17% on a rolling 12-month basis in value terms in July 2017, N$356 million more than the N$2.08 billion recorded for July 2016. While the value of building plans completed remains depressed on a year-on-year and 12-month cumulative basis, the corresponding measures of value for building plan approvals point toward some recovery in the construction industry going forward,” IJG research stated in its latest report on the July building plans.

Out of the 129 building plans approved, additions to properties accounted for 105 of those approvals. Additions to properties amounted to 159 in June and perennially make up the majority of approvals, a sign that property owners continue to invest in improvements and extensions to property.

“These developments in building plans follow on the backdrop of a weak economy, and moderating inflation that gave room for the SARB and then Bank of Namibia to reduce their respective repo rates by 25 basis points each. As alluded to earlier, this adjustment to BoN’s policy rate will be followed by commercial banks adjusting lending rates lower. This adjustment in turn provides consumers with relatively slight, but welcome relief,” IJG said. – Ronald Geingob