Buying a home is probably one of the most important - and expensive - purchases many people will make.

With the news recently in that Eskom will be hiking electricity tariffs by 15.63% from April, commercial and retail tenants will be bracing for increased strain on already tightly stretched budgets.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, property stocks in general took a significant hit, where retail and commercial office space – and even some industrial property holdings – were affected. In contrast, lower-income affordable housing – and inner-city housing in particular – has performed better than most other property markets in South Africa over the same period.

Despite President Ramaphosa’s optimistic analogies of fynbos re-emerging after fire, 2021’s State of the Nation Address made it clear that South Africa has a long, and largely undefined, road to recovery ahead.

Hyprop, the retail-focused REIT with a R45.4 billion portfolio of shopping centres in South Africa, Eastern Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, improved its distributable income by 18% in the six months to 31 December 2020 compared with the six months to 30 June 2020.

There is a need to achieve greater scale in delivery and improve conditions for private-sector investment in social housing, National Treasury pointed out in its 2021 Budget Review.

Yael Geffen, CEO of Lew Geffen Sotheby’s International Realty, welcomed the government backtracking in this budget speech on its earlier decision to increase personal income tax, as well as providing a further R2.2 billion in tax relief through raising personal income tax brackets and rebates by 5%.

Relief at no increase in personal tax, says Dr Andrew Golding, chief executive of the Pam Golding Property group

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s budget has been received very positively, as demonstrated by the reaction from markets.

We continue with the 4th quarter 2020 results 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.