Goodday,

Maybe it’s just me, or perhaps it’s a round of “bad news fatigue”, but the collective cloud of gloom that has been hanging over SA for many months seems to be lifting at last – with positive effects on our residential property market.

It seems to have started with the announcement that Durban is to host the Commonwealth Games in 2022. This many not seem like such a big deal, considering we have already hosted the Rugby World Cup, the Soccer World Cup and many other major international events, but it evidently rekindled some happy – and hopefully inspiring – memories of what we are able to pull off as a nation when we all work together.

Then there was the announcement of the Homo Naledi discoveries, which was once again an occasion of national pride – and a reminder of the incredible intellectual and creative resources we possess in addition to the natural beauty of SA.

On top of that, a South African is hosting the biggest daily TV show in the US, the Reserve Bank has decided to leave interest rates where they are for now, the petrol price has dropped and the Springboks have started to bounce back.

So perhaps it’s not so surprising that our trademark optimism has started to reassert itself, or that home sales and prices here continue to rise despite the current turbulence in the global economy.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean for one minute to trivialise the political and economic problems we are facing – but I am saying that there seems to be more determination now to tackle those problems, and more confidence that we will succeed in doing so.

Meanwhile SA is getting a lot of positive publicity at the moment and I will hopefully be adding to that when I attend the Leading Real Estate Companies of the World (Leading RE) business leaders conference in Berlin later this month.

There I will be turning the spotlight on the outstanding real estate opportunities in SA for an audience of top brokers from around the world – and underlining the exceptional value that investors are able to find here, especially in view of the current rand exchange rate. I have no doubt they will be impressed.

Warm property regards,

BERRY EVERITT

Managing Director