The shortage of skills and other challenges facing the construction industry are up for discussion this week at the second built environment conference, currently on the go in Port Elizabeth.

South African property developers now have a new source of finance to help overcome the historic difficulties they have faced in obtaining cost-efficient funding to build homes that are affordable for the majority of South Africans

A slowdown in GDP growth by the largest economic sectors in the first quarter of 2007 has been partly compensated for by a stellar performance from the construction sector said an analyst. 

"While the manufacturing, wholesale and retail, and finance and business services sectors had a combined contribution of 3.6% to Q4 2006's GDP growth, this share dwindled to 2.6% in Q1 2007, but some of this shortfall in growth was compensated for in turn by the improved performance of the construction, trade and transport, and general government sectors," said the analyst.

"The construction sector in particular experienced stellar growth over the quarter, growing quarter-on-quarter (q/q) by 21.3%, even accounting for the upwardly revised output figures of the previous two quarters," said the analyst.

"Such is the growth of the sector that some industry analysts are predicting a doubling in the sector's size by 2013, bringing with it increased investment and employment creation," concluded the analyst.

Aveng to return R3,2bn to shareholders from the company's sale of its cement producer Holcim SA

The outlook for residential building activity in South Africa is on the wanes.

As South Africa prepares to begin major construction projects around the country, heated disputes are set to erupt over the rights to develop lucrative sites

In order to capture further potential gains in construction companies in the new year one will have to be a brave investor, according to Old Mutual's Faroz Basa.

Cost pressures will continue to impact seriously on the construction industry until at least 2014, the South African Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors said on Friday.

A coastal development project which forms part of a R116m facelift planned for c's coast is on track

MURRAY & Roberts Holdings, SA’s second-biggest construction company, says its order book increased as an expanding economy spurred building activity.