Africa Construction

Although the country has avoided the worst aspects of the global downturn, business confidence has been hit and many of the key indicators for business growth and subsequent office demand do not look promising.

Infrastructure development has been placed at the heart of South Africa’s new economic transformation plan. For the National Planning Commission, it is seen as a silver bullet that will get the economy moving once again and create jobs in a country that historically suffers from chronic unemployment. However, the response thus far has been muted. It...

After several years of successive growth, South Africa’s real estate sector felt the full force of the global economic crisis in 2008. The industry has been no more able to avoid the economic shockwaves than its counterparts around the world. Although the 2010 FIFA World Cup offered some respite, 2011 has seen a downturn and little appetite among...

While the 2010 football FIFA World Cup continues to crop up in conversation across industries in South Africa, it dominates the narrative in the construction sector unlike any other. The event, for which the government invested R28bn ($3.4bn), has become the major reference point for contractors, a peak from which their fortunes rapidly declined. A...