A total of 211 building plans valued at N$248.4 million were approved by the City of Windhoek in October 2015, with one commercial property to be built in Lafrenz, valued at N$102.0 million. On a year to date basis, 2,176 plans were approved with a value of N$1.792 billion, versus 2,479 plans valued at N$1.924 billion for the same period last year. This represents a 6.9% 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, however, this rate improved from 16.0% in September, largely due to the Lafrenz property approved in October this year. The below chart illustrates the value of plans approved on a tear to date basis compared to previous years.
The 12-month cumulative value of plans approved increased for the first time in six months, up from N$2.004 billion in September to N$2.166 billion this month, however, the figure is still 3.4% less than a year ago. The cumulative number of plans approved continued to fall, down from 2,553 in September to 2,543 in October. 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.