Tax could encourage investment
CAPITAL gains tax could encourage fresh investment in residential property once home owners fully understand the advantage they enjoy in terms of investment, says Remax regional director Peter Gilmour.
(©www.bday.co.za)

Rates help building activity
THE delayed effect of lower interest rates has helped building activity in the residential sector continue to show steady growth. According to the first-quarter survey of building and construction by the Bureau for Economic Research at Stellenbosch University, the business confidence in the construction industry improved in the past quarter. Expectations are that workloads will increase further in the second quarter.

Respondents in the nonresidential sector were not as optimistic and expect conditions to remain tight in the second quarter.

The bureau said fixed investment in the nonresidential sector increased notably in the last quarter of last year, driven largely by higher activity levels in the casino and office building sectors.

Despite this pick-up, the bureau said the survey results showed the availability of new work had not improved significantly.

The medium-term perspective was more positive, as government expenditure on schools, clinics, police stations and courts was set to increase in the next three years.
(©www.bday.co.za)

Developer gives landlords tough choice
Construction company Murray & Roberts (M&R) is giving landlords with whom it has long leases a stark choice: they can share its R500m loss on property or become a concurrent creditor to its liquidated property arm.

Some property owners are so angry with M&R not standing behind M&R Properties that they say they will encourage property investors to boycott M&R's building arm.

M&R, like all major builders, went on a building binge in the late Eighties and Nineties. It enhanced its earnings by signing long leases with the investors who bought the properties, and then subleasing the office- or shop-space to tenants. The buyers snapped up the single rent and supposed blue-chip income stream for up to 50 years, while M&R kept its building arm busy and property division profitable.
(©www.fm.co.za)

Government to sell property worth millions
SEVENTEEN military properties and an old hospital complex are among the state properties being disposed of by the public works department.
(©www.bday.co.za)

Isithebe estate attracts much investment
DURBAN Isithebe industrial estate, midway between Durban and Richards Bay, is emerging as a focal investment point in KwaZulu-Natal for the textile and clothing industry.
(©www.bday.co.za)

Biggest obstacle
THE lack of skills among black contractors is the biggest obstacle to empowerment in the construction industry, a department of public works official told a Southern African Development Community conference in Pretoria yesterday.
(©www.bday.co.za)

Joining the links again
Retail chain Edgars' Market Street store in central Johannesburg was once the group's top earner. But the great trek north saw sales at the store - since moved to President Street - plummet to 12th or about R80m annual turnover.
It's a stark reminder of how the once thriving central business district is now a peripheral part of Johannesburg's economy. Increasingly, it resembles a gigantic flea market .
Still, despite the flight of white businesses and consumers from the city centre, an emerging market meant there was no need for Edgars management to panic.
(©www.fm.co.za)

Committee opposes Sasol pipeline construction
Durban - The Merebank Environment Action Committee is expected to meet Environmental Affairs Minister Valli Moosa next week to discuss community concerns over the construction of a R6,5 methane gas transmission pipeline by Sasol Gas. MEAC spokesman Dr Baruth Seetharam on Thursday told Sapa that the committee was to have met Moosa this week, but that the meeting was postponed on his request. The committee is opposing the construction of the pipeline, but an application it brought in the Durban High Court on Wednesday for an urgent interdict in this regard was dismissed with cost.
(©www.busrep.co.za)

Grayprop posts 4% profit rise in sector back in favour
Cape Town - Allan Gray Property Trust (Grayprop), the listed property unit trust group, yesterday underlined a view that the listed property stocks sector was slowly reappearing on investors' radar screens when it delivered a 4 percent rise in net profit to R87,5 million in the six months to March. John Rainier, the managing director of Allan Gray Property Trust, said the numbers showed that investment in a property company could yield consistent returns with solid earnings growth.
(©www.busrep.co.za)

Pareto's tenants up in arms despite rental plan
Cape Town - Pareto - the wholly owned property management company of the Eskom Pension and Provident Fund, the Engen Pension Fund and Metropolitan Life, and the owners of regional shopping centre Tygervalley - has agreed to review the rent of tenants who are financially hard-pressed. However, Reid Corin, the lawyer for 120 tenants at the centre, said this week the selective and unilateral method proposed to deal with the problems at the centre was impractical and unacceptable.
(©www.busrep.co.za)

DBSA has invested R21bn in regional growth
Pretoria - The Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) had to date a cumulative investment of R21,1 billion, 25 percent of which was in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries other than South Africa, Gladman Nika, the DBSA's acting chief executive, said yesterday.
(©www.busrep.co.za)

Work on Russian F1 circuit to start in July
Construction on a motor-racing circuit aimed at bringing the glamour and glitz of Formula One to Russia will begin in three months, it was reported in Moscow.
(©www.suntimes.co.za)

on the side...

Urban Solutions nets Newtown upgrading
ARCHITECTURAL and urban design consultancy Urban Solutions has won the competition to develop Mary Fitzgerald Square in the Newtown Cultural Precinct in Johannesburg's city centre.
(©www.bday.co.za)

Futuristic fantasy becomes reality
CITIES of zeppelins and pods on giant stalks have been the stuff of futurology since the 1920s. Always part of a future that seemed just around the corner, they were the off-the-peg indicators of limitless technology, symbols of dizzying change, while buildings in the real world remained stubbornly old-fashioned and earthbound. Now, a material that can give shape to these fantasies is available. ETFE (ethylene tetro flouoro ethylene) is a fluorine-based transparent plastic that works as a sort of puffer jacket for buildings, and is a lightweight alternative to glass. It allows architects to escape the weight of steel, glass, stone and concrete.
(©www.bday.co.za)

Conservationists are up in arms
CONSERVATIONISTS have accused government of having started illegally with the recent construction of the Coega project in Port Elizabeth because the environmental effect assessment had not been yet been passed by central government.
(©www.bday.co.za)

Protests knock Cape auction
CAPE TOWN Protests surrounding the auction of an environmentally sensitive property which borders on the Cape Point Nature Reserve have resulted in a surprisingly low sale price of R3,2m
(©www.bday.co.za)

Company may take billboard case further
DURBAN An outdoor advertising company, Roundabout Outdoor, which lost a court battle last month to site its billboard on a government school property, has lodged an application to appeal against the decision.
(©www.bday.co.za)

Ousted Varty goes back to the bush...
Tough times in the tourist business are hitting luxury lodge and travel group Conservation Corp Africa (CCA), resulting in founder and CEO Dave Varty being forced out in a management restructuring.
(©www.fm.co.za)

Adopt, adapt, advance is the modern rallying cry for veni, vidi, vici
'Adopt, adapt, advance" - the rallying cry of leaders passionate about building great businesses. Fast learning - the cycle of learning from day-to-day business experience and applying it in a continuous process of change and adaptation - is the key to successful enterprises of 2001. This key finding of management consultants across the world is at the heart of Amos Laycock Consulting, the sponsor of a conference to be held in May to deepen South Africa's business leaders' awareness of the concepts of best practice and benchmarking.
(©www.busrep.co.za)

SA edges higher in global competitiveness survey
Johannesburg - The World Competitiveness Yearbook had ranked South Africa 42nd out of 49 countries, up one place since last year, IMD, the Swiss publisher, revealed yesterday. South Africa remained the only African country in the ranking, while the US held on to the first place.
(©www.busrep.co.za)

Pam Golding racks up record sales figure of almost R150m in February
THE Gauteng operations of Pam Golding Properties ended the financial year with sales of almost R150m in February a record for a single month, says group CE Andrew Golding.
(©www.bday.co.za)

VAT on property sales
Failure to charge VAT when it is necessary could result in the profits of the home seller being substantially diminished. If VAT input credit has been claimed on additions or alterations made to a residential property in order to accommodate a business – such as the addition of an office, or the conversion of outbuildings – then the Receiver of Revenue requires that VAT is charged on the sale of that property, even if it is not owned by the business.
(©www.iol.co.za)

Market cool-down predicted in Gauteng
The current surge in residential property activity is expected to start cooling down in Gauteng by the end of the second quarter.So says Andre Hamman, joint MD of De Huizemark Countrywide, who believes the that the “demand exceeding supply” situation in the region will turn when hundreds of new sectional title and cluster units start coming on stream from about May.
(©www.news24.co.za)

Aska's success in Parklands
THE building industry generally may just be ticking over at a pace that keeps most participants fairly busy. But in the Cape Town suburb of Table View it is a hive of activity, particularly so in the Parklands development, where the Aska Property Group has been achieving sales that would make most property developers green with envy.
(©www.cbn.co.za)

Life goes on in Ignoramia

... is Pieter Schoombee's account in this month's column 'View from Gauteng' of some of the stupidest things experts say.
(©www.cbn.co.za)

What's the difference?
At the 14th International Cost Engineering Congress held in Guadalajara, Mexico, February 1996, the Congress delegates held an open discussion of the similarities and differences between the cost engineering, quantity surveying, and project management professions. The following "white paper" summarizes the conclusions of that discussion.(as reported on the ICEC website)
Cost Engineering, Quantity Surveying and Project Management Defined

Too many professions?
"It is questionable whether there is a generally acceptable singular description of the work of a quantity surveyor. This entity likes to see itself as a separate profession, on par with baseline professionals such as architects and engineers,"says Leonard van der Dussen in his latest article entitled "Managing the Quantity Surveyor out of Suffocation" on the VDDB website. In the article he 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.

Earned Value Management - the basics
NAVAIR training presentation on EV basics for IBR teams. (Please note this is a Powerpoint 4.0 file and may not be viewable by all subscribers) Use the scrollbar to the right of your screen to navigate between pages.

The Value of Project Management
Having good project management skills does not mean you have no problems. It does not mean that risks go away. It does not mean that there are no surprises. The value of good project management is that you have standard processes in place to deal with all contingencies. This article from Tenstep.com is written for IT companies but can also be applied to the building industry.

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

Daniel Nel
Kovilan Ramsamy
Roland Böhmer
Lucas Chauke
Adele Marais

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.

did you hear?

Like their SA counterparts, Swazi police worked overtime during the long Easter weekend to discourage drunken driving. Motorists passing through roadblocks were handed leaflets warning of the dangers of alcohol abuse. If nothing else, the police message will have made drivers read the leaflets twice. "Socially: A lot of his friends will avoid an alcoholic who will in turn commit suicide or befriend himself with other alcoholics and there will be total chaos. "Health wise: The excessive drinker will suffer from heart disease, infection of the pancreas, brain damage, liver problems and uncontrolled hallucination; from this condition there is no recovery."

Warning on a low ceiling beam in a pub in Taunton, in the UK: "Duck or Grouse."

Pat Kunard, who owns Talisman Antiques in East London, has always been proud of her family's history in the antiques business. But now she's not so sure. According to Go!, the coastal city's news/advertising weekly, Pat's grandfather "was a pornbroker".

Now read the rest of Did you Hear? in the Financial Mail

did you see?

The Regional Performing Arts Center Live Construction Cam - sits 32 stories above the streets of Philadelphia and looks east towards Broad Street. Spruce Street borders the site on the left. The image is updated every 5 minutes, 24 hours a day.