Strong build­ing activ­ity evi­dent in some cat­e­gories of new hous­ing across South Africa.

Build­ing activ­ity in the seg­ment for flats and town­houses showed some strong growth in the first two months of 2013, with low growth evi­dent in the seg­ment for larger houses. In gen­eral the plan­ning phase, as depicted by build­ing plans approved for new housing, contracted by a small mar­gin up to Feb­ru­ary, while the con­struc­tion phase ben­e­fit­ted from double-digit growth in the cat­e­gories of houses smaller than 80m² and flats and townhouses.

The real value of plans approved for new res­i­den­tial build­ings was up by R592,3 mil­lion, or 14,2% year-on-year (y/y), to R4,76 bil­lion in the first two months of the year. The real value of res­i­den­tial build­ings con­structed came to R3,38 bil­lion in the same period, which was R524,6 mil­lion, or 18,4% y/y, more than a year ago.

Click here to read the full  report com­piled by Jacques du Toit, Prop­erty Ana­lyst of ABSAHome Loans