The building and construction industry is growing at a predictable rate and is mostly being influenced by the spending power of households. Most African economies are still not able to turn the strong residential demand into an economic driver in the same manner that the economies of the United States and Great Britain have been able to do. Those economies have been underpinned by the strength of the residential market, and provide a model worthy of emulation. The strengthening of the South African currency has turned into a boom to the construction industry through capitalization on import of raw materials.
The construction industry in South Africa delivered an output in excess of R57 billion per annum in 2002, of which approximately 30% came from public sector orders and tenders, 13% from public corporations and 58% from the private sector. This constitutes almost 30% of total investment in South Africa . The 2004 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) places increased emphasis on infrastructure provision at provincial and local level. The three-year medium term budget makes provision for an increase in capital expenditure to 6.4 percent of GDP in 2004/5. South Africa, which the United Nations has indicated has the second biggest income gap between rich and poor in the world (after Brazil),needs to grow at more than 6 percent a year to cut unemployment. This requires construction input to possibly double its capacity over a 10-year period.
The South African national spending priorities include infrastructure to support industry development, i.e. making sure that the public infrastructure is in place to support industrial investment. This objective requires the highest level of thinking and co-ordination between government and industry. Infrastructure spending is growing at 6% per annum, according to National Treasury.
The South African Property is likely to receive a major boost from 2010 - if the World Cup is a success. Paris "France" property prices escalated by as much as 55% over a one year period before and after the 2002 Word Cup and property across the city made astronomical gains with the prices of apartments close to some of the stadiums rocketing by over 100% over the same period. Some neglected neighborhoods in Paris were completely rejuvenated. The same will happen in South Africa as the property is still undervalued and the macroeconomic outlook is very favorable. This will provide a huge market for the Olympia subsidiaries in Botswana and South Africa as construction and renovations in preparation for the event are on going.
The following is a display of the competitive analysis of the products being sold across all the subsidiaries. This analysis has been done according to the country where the subsidiary is followed by the market share of the product Vis a Vis other competing or similar products.
