Letter from the editor

Published Sep 22, 2020

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It has been an incredibly difficult journey since our lives changed on March 27. Now no one quite knows what to expect – can we, for instance, possibly hope to see a good holiday season as our borders and airports reopen for international tourism?

Will properties in the Airbnb marketbe filled again; can hotels hope to reignitethemselves after lying fallow for so long and what about short-term lets?

Only time will tell how the reopening of more of our economy will affect these hard-hit industries.

People in the building industrysay they are working flat out 24/7 to catch up for the period they were locked down.

Some smaller developershave been flattened and have not been able to rise again, selling off prime land at good prices to the bigger players, who were able to stay afloat. Despite all this, people still need a roof over their heads.

And the latest FNB barometer, which shows an upward trend in home buying, bodes well for the industry. People still need to rent, buy and sell their homes.

In other words – life goes on! Unbelievably.

However, it will probably be only in months to come – maybe even years – that we will get a better idea of how the buying, selling and renting game has been affected and how we, as a nation, have been affected by strategies to combat the pandemic.

I hope by next year we’ll have a happier story to tell.

Warm regards

Vivian Warby

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