The FNB Commercial Property Broker Survey surveys a sample of commercial property brokers in and around the 6 major metros of South Africa, namely, City of Joburg and Ekurhuleni (Greater Johannesburg), Tshwane, Ethekwini, City of Cape Town and Nelson Mandela Bay.

In this report, we discuss the 2nd quarter 2020 results of the rental market component of our FNB Commercial Property Broker Survey, which surveys a sample of commercial property brokers in and around the 6 major metros of South Africa, namely, City of Joburg and Ekurhuleni (Greater Johannesburg), Tshwane, Ethekwini, City of Cape Town and Nelson Mandela Bay.

“The COVID-19 Crisis has changed the world a lot, perhaps less through introducing new trends and more through speeding up old trends,” said John Loos, FNB Economist at an FNB Commercial Property Finance (CPF) webinar earlier today.

On Sunday evening, the President announced a relaxation in COVID-19-related lockdown measures, from level 4 to level 3 as from 1 June, which means the opening up of most retail activity, excluding restaurant and pub facilities.

In a recent note, we indicated that, in the “post-lockdown” recessionary period we would likely see the direct economy-related pressures being more severe on the Industrial Property Sector, via a very weak.

In a downturn, Property Market Values can deviate dramatically from the market “equilibrium” value, a value which can be far lower than market in recessionary times due to strong resistance by the market to dropping values to make the sales.

As in the case of the buying/selling market survey, brokers perceive the most buoyant conditions to be in the Industrial Rental Market.

Will electricity supply reliability and cost increases become a key issue again in 2020?

Sub-1% economic growth insufficient to curb vacancy rate rise and unlikely to prop up real property values at recent levels'.

On a year-on-year basis, Total Restaurant, Catering and Take-Aways Retail Sales Income growth recorded 5.2% in September.