A total of 185 building plans to the value of N$94.9m were approved by the City of Windhoek in January 2015. It looks like a good start for 2015 as 49 more plans were approved in January compared to a seasonally slower December, however in value terms it is significantly less than the N$244.4m worth of plans approved in December. The difference in value is mainly because less expensive commercial and industrial projects were approved in January.
The 12 month cumulative number of plans approved continued to lose momentum during January, falling to 2,803 compared to 2,846 in December, with the year-on-year growth rate contracting by 14.8%, posting negative growth for the ninth consecutive month, as shown in the graph below. The 12-month cumulative value of plans approved totaled N$2.212bn, down 1.6% y/y.
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, many such plans fall out of the Windhoek municipal area, and as such are not captured in the monthly building plan statistics.