A total of 207 building plans valued at N$159.6 million were approved by the City of Windhoek in August 2015. On a year to date basis, 1,759 plans were approved with a value of N$1.409 billion, versus 1,957 plans valued at N$1.695 billion for the same period last year. This represents a 16.8% decrease in the value of plans approved on a year to date basis. This decrease is mainly due to base effects as three large commercial projects were approved by the municipality in February 2014. On a month to date basis, the value of plans approved increased by 10.1%, due to a rise in the value of approved additions and houses compared to July. The below chart illustrates the value of plans approved in July compared to previous months.
The 12-month cumulative value of plans approved continued to fall, down from N$2.042 billion in July to N$2.012 billion this month, along with the cumulative number of plans approved, which fell from 2,719 in July to 2,648. These figures are presented in the charts below.
In our view, the construction sector will remain one of the leading growth and development sectors for 2015 in the Namibian economy, with both private sector and government having aggressive development plans. However, since many of these plans occur outside the Windhoek municipal area, they are not captured in the monthly building plan statistics.