WINDHOEK, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- As the Namibian Government consolidates and substantially reduces its spending on construction and other infrastructure activities, investment research firm Simonis Storm Securities (SSS) forecast that the number of buildings completed will continue a downward trend in 2017.
SSS said this on Monday in a report following the release of monthly Building Plans Statistics by the City of Windhoek for December 2016.
Despite the increase of approved building plans in December compared to November, SSS said the slowdown in the number of buildings completed and approved has been on the downward trend since 2013.
"The buildings completed declined by 14 percent to 443 buildings completed in 2016 compared to 515 recorded in the prior year. In 2013, 1,421 buildings were completed. The number of buildings approved also declined over the four years to 1,979 in 2016," SSS added.
This was a 29.1 percent decline compared to 2,790 buildings approved in 2015 and the number has declined significantly and we expect the downward trend to continue in 2017, SSS added.
