New president sets sights on commercialisation
Durban quantity surveyor Mark Grant, second-youngest president ever of the 93-year-old Association of South African Quantity Surveyors, has a passion to commercialise the activities of the ASAQS. He believes the ASAQS has abundant intellectual capital to produce a financially winning formula for its 2 900 members. He points out that between R5 billion and R1O billion worth of building products are channelled from producer to user through the profession annually and that this presents a unique opportunity to the association and it's members. He briefed members of the ASAQS Marketing Committee on his vision during a strategy session on Thursday.
(www.asaqs.co.za)

Lack of liquidity hits syndication
THE property syndication industry has been brought to a standstill largely as a result of a lack of liquidity, says Mike Flax, MD of Spearhead Property Holdings. "There was no readily available market place for them, and it was difficult to sell them in small lots. As a result, the industry continually suffered from a lack of funding. "By contrast, the JSE-listed property sector has become exceptionally liquid because shares can usually be sold or bought within a few hours." In the past few years, the combined returns from the listed property sector have beaten the all share index by 24% in 1997, 12% in 1998, 2% in 1999 (when interest rates reached 24%) and by 26% last year. The listed property sector remained in "positive territory", despite some drastic drops in the all share index in the past four years.
(©www.bday.co.za)

Hands off La Lucia, says pension fund
The Mine Pension Fund has turned down a R250m offer from Old Mutual Properties (OMP) to buy the 50 000 m² La Lucia shopping centre. The centre is a stone's throw away from OMP's own 110 000 m², R1,2bn Gateway centre near Umhlanga Rocks, north of Durban. La Lucia has a strong shopper following in Durban North. It holds long leases with national tenants such as Edgars, Game, Boardmans, Foschini, Milady's and others that Gateway needs to ensure its success. The retailers say they do not want to move to Gateway. Buying La Lucia could put OMP in a strong position to change their minds. But the pension fund is not interested.
(©www.fm.co.za)

Monex plans fail
PROPERTY company Monex's plans to recapitalise through the sale of a 14% stake in Century City Centre for R100m have failed as a result of collapse of the disposal deal with property loan stock company Richway Retail Properties.
(©www.bday.co.za)

Prospective home buyers can expect to pay 15% more
Absa House prices in SA rose a nominal 15,2% to an average R291 290 in the first quarter this year compared with the same period last year, an Absa Bank Group Economic Research survey shows.
(©www.bday.co.za)

Inflated costs fix a flat
Rising residential rents are encouraging SA developers to enter the rental market for the first time in 25 years. The first block of rental flats is about to go up in Johannesburg and development should spread to other cities within three years, say builders. Sable Homes MD Jo Pelser sent one of his staff to rent a two-bedroomed flat in Illovo, northern Johannesburg, last December. "We couldn't find one at the monthly going rate of R4 000. That was enough to convince me to build a rental block on property we bought at the Wanderers Club."
(©www.fm.co.za)

PPC expects earnings growth to slow down
AN IMPROVEMENT of 62% in headline earnings usually warrants a celebration but this may not the case for cement company PPC, because the earnings acceleration cannot be maintained going forward. The 62% improvement came out of PPC's results for the six months ended March, with headline earnings a share of 269,8c from 167,3c. Turnover increased a more modest 16% to R954,7m. PPC CEO John Gomersall said the group expected to report increased earnings for the full year, "but not at the same rate of increase achieved during this first half". The group should see "continued modest growth in cement demand for the rest of the year, but lime demand may decline in line with softer international steel markets," he said.
(©www.bday.co.za)

Rogge says Athens is back on track
ATHENS Preparations for the trouble-plagued 2004 Olympics in Athens are back on track, the head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) coordination committee confirmed yesterday
(©www.bday.co.za)

R21m expansion for Pretoria market
The second phase of the Pretoria Fresh Produce Market's expansion programme is set to begin this month.
(©www.engineeringnews.co.za)

Is red tape keeping investors away from SA?
Despite good offshore inflows in the first quarter and the potential to attract far more foreign direct investment (FDI), bungling officialdom may be keeping foreign investors away from SA
(©www.bday.co.za)

Money supply figures dash hopes for interest rate cut
The SA money supply growth is now at levels that could ignite inflationary concerns, economists have warned. However, they say inflation risks are muted somewhat by the lower pace of credit extension to the private sector which, although higher than in recent years, is growing off a low base in an environment where there is lots of spare capacity. The rate of growth of SA's broad M3 money supply measure rose 12,83% to end-March from 9,40% in the year to end-February, the SA Reserve Bank (SARB) said on Friday.
(©www.bday.co.za)

Sluggish rate of fixed investment remains a major problem
SA HAS achieved two miracles since the early 1990s. The first was the relatively peaceful transition from centuries of racial domination to an open democracy in 1994. The second occurred when in 1996 a leadership with long-standing socialist commitments abandoned earlier aspirations and embraced global capitalism. Since then, government debt has fallen and government spending, as a proportion of GDP, has followed the downward trend. Inflation targets that seemed absurdly optimistic in 1996 are almost within reach. But macroeconomic discipline is only one essential ingredient for success. GDP growth since 1996 has averaged significantly less than that of comparable emerging markets and is less than half of what SA needs to begin to whittle away at its chronic socioeconomic problems. Unemployment is still among the half a dozen or so highest recorded rates in the world. As a consequence, incomes of the poorest have fallen steadily and a welfare crisis looms.
(©www.bday.co.za)

'Scarce skills' bursaries by August
In a bid to realise one of the five key aims of the Reconstruction and Development Programme, achieve an improvement in the United Nations Development Programme's human development index and a higher position on the international competitiveness table, government is hoping to implement a human resource development strategy by May.
(©www.engineeringnews.co.za)

Gauteng homebuyers no longer worried by Cape Town prices JOHANNESBURG buyers are no longer balking at Cape Town prices as their own market has picked up considerably in the past 18 months, says Seeff Property Services west coast MD Elmarie Campbell.
(©www.bday.co.za)

Residential prices surge in Bloemfontein
BLOEMFONTEIN has experienced a surge in residential property prices, says Verna van den Blink, a director of Pam Golding Franchise Services. "While there are still affordable properties selling extremely well up to R400000, the top end of the market has really taken off," she says. Properties in the Waverley and Heuwelsig areas have been selling beyond the R2m mark. Her company recently sold a property in Langenoven Park for R1,25m a record price for the area. "This is a very positive indicator for Bloemfontein, and goes hand in hand with the surge in commercial property sales."
(©www.bday.co.za)

Pam Golding to set up academy for budding estate agents
PAM Golding Properties is setting up a training academy for agents. CE Andrew Golding says the main aim of the External Academy, which will be headed by Pam Snyman, is to provide the public, particularly blacks previously excluded from the property market, with the necessary skills to enter formal practice. He says the move was spurred by the fact that buyers are demanding more value for their money, which meant that agents needed to become more competitive.
(©www.bday.co.za)

Sales soar for Golding
SA's top independent property group, Pam Golding Properties of Cape Town, upped its sales by 26,6% for the year ended February 2001 spurred by strong performance from the Gauteng region where turnover soared by nearly 40% compared to last years figures.
(©www.cbn.co.za)

Too many professions? Last chance to have your say..
Leonard van der Dussen in his article entitled "Managing the Quantity Surveyor out of Suffocation" on the VDDB website proposes a radical departure from traditional thinking and suggests:.."would it not be more productive to join forces with the baseline professions such as architects and engineering associations? It would create an organised and regulated route for project cost professionals to retain professional status, but to gain it where each section belongs: building industry with architects, civil engineering and process engineering with the associated engineering bodies."

Do you think that there should only be two broad professional bodies, Architects and Engineers? Cast your vote in our poll on the ASAQS website. At present only 14% of voters believe that the other professions will be better served by joining the architects or engineers. The poll will close next Friday.

Browse to Topics on the ASAQS website to take a look at recent postings. Feel free to add your comments and air your views.

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Economic development, social spending and project management
Social development in conjunction with economic development must be balanced by education in project management. Project management that brings people together from diverse cultures, religions, social levels, and education levels to effectively and efficiently reach set objective. Project management, where people are managed so that they can manage their work, is the key to our future says Philip van der Merwe of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, Rand Afrikaans University in this article for PMW.

New members to the CUG
We wish to welcome the following new members to the CUG:

Henk du Toit
Fernando Tavares
Dries du Toit
Danie Erasmus
Jeetendra Gunput
Roelof Delport
Wendy Steven-Jennings
Nazeem Kahn

Please note that your registration to the CUG will remain in force as long as you remain a member of ASAQS and there is no need to register every year. If you have not received an e-mail confirming your registration contact ASAQS.

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