Tony Clarke, managing director of Rawson Properties, Elmarie Thompson, franchisee for Rawson Properties in Namibia, and Jason Lee, head of Rawsons Commercial franchise division.
Continuing Rawson Properties’ cross border expansion after selling its first Zimbabwean franchise, managing director, Tony Clarke, recently announced that the company is now establishing itself in Namibia.
A prominent Windhoek attorney, Elmarie Thompson, a UCT graduate who runs her own legal firm, has bought the right to establish a multi-faceted Rawson franchise covering commercial, residential and letting operations in Windhoek, Swakopmund and Walvis Bay.
Thompson was recently in Cape Town to sign the deal, and says she has kept in touch with property trends through her legal firm’s conveyancing work and it is clear to her that Namibia, coming through the recession less affected than South Africa, is now moving into an era where the national economic growth rate will be 6.6 percent and where all property will be increasingly in demand.
“There is a serious lack of housing at the lower end of the income scale and, as many people here cannot afford to buy, rental stock is likely to be much needed. This shortage of housing has been made worse by the government’s decision to release suitable municipal land by auctioning it to top bidders rather than, as in the past, by allowing it to be developed by subsidised parastatals.
“Private developers, now increasingly active in Namibia, are finding that there is a strong demand for homes in the R400 000 to R600 000 price range and in the R1.5 million plus bracket, and homes priced at R5m plus also still sell steadily.”
She predicts that the call for commercial premises will, if anything, be stronger than that in the housing sector although at present, much rental space is still available.
Thompson’s plan is to have separate two-agent teams operating in Windhoek, Swakopmund and Walvis Bay and she foresees these branches growing steadily. Her own offices are in Casino Street and back onto Windhoek’s main street, Independence Avenue.
Jason Lee, also a lawyer and head of Rawson Properties’ commercial franchising division, says that 12 franchises have been sold in the four months since the commercial franchise division was established.
