Botswana’s property sector remains resilient with an excellent performance from the market, unlike the other countries in Southern Africa. The current trends of Botswana also show a positive trend of luxury house owners moving from renting to occupying the property. This positive trend has reduced the stock in the market for quality homes.
The good news, however, is that the residential market sales are recovering steadily after entering the third quarter of the current year, 2022. Moreover, with new investments, the market outlook is quite positive, with more investments and investors making their way into the property sector of Botswana.
The market, which was already competitive enough, is now even more competitive as there is an increased demand for home ownership from Generation Z. In addition, this demand from the youth will keep the market stable and competitive.
The pandemic, however, affected the house owners’ income, which forced many of them to sell their homes under the price. And a lot among them had accepted rates much lower than the others out of desperation, just in the hopes of avoiding the wait of months for a potential buyer. In 2020-2021, there was a rise in the number of high-end properties sold by homeowners to sustain their business or liquidity needs. This caused the prices of homes to fall by more than 20% and set the market in a difficult position. The property market suffered quite a bit during the pandemic, but now it’s recovering and improving steadily.
Like all the other African countries, Botswana is also recovering from the effects of the pandemic, the housing sector is doing rather well, but on the other hand, the hospitality sector looks bleak. The hospitality sector of Botswana is still recovering from the disastrous effects of the pandemic, but the rate of recovery remains a cause of concern.
With no buyers to sell the property to, the sellers in the property market suffered greatly during the pandemic, and the prices of high-end properties also fell. Some homeowners even had to sell their properties for less than the market prices at that time. Fast forward to today, the economy is still recovering, and the prices are still increasing from that time.
The economy of Botswana is now thriving, but there remain some sectors that are still in need of assistance. This includes the retail and office sectors. With the unannounced lockdowns, the rate of office activity has drastically decreased, and many offices are forced to lay off their employees, increasing the unemployment index.
If the government can stop the lockdowns, it would benefit the economy. But, only some sectors are projecting a bleak outlook for the future, like the industrial sector of Botswana is still reporting an ongoing rise in demand. With the way the economy of Botswana is, it is projecting a positive, promising outlook for the upcoming years.
