THE prospects for the South African commercial property sector for this year could be best described as “cautiously optimistic” when compared with last year, says Marc Wainer, CEO of SA’s second largest property group Redefine Properties.
On Friday, Mr Wainer said the South African property market continued to move through the lower leg of the economic cycle, with certain segments experiencing an upturn, albeit slowly.
For the South African listed property sector, like other asset classes, last year was shaped by credit events, political change and indecision, and natural disasters.
Mr Wainer said that although interest rates remained unchanged at low levels, this was tempered by the prospects of a recession in the euro zone, further spurred on by the recent credit rating cuts for most of the euro-zone countries, as well as a downgrading of SA’s rating.