COVID-19 IMPACT ON THE MARKET & GEOPOLITICS

As a Real Estate consultant and Valuer for more than 8 years, I am particularly interested to see how the real sector will perform in the coming months. Thank you RICS and the expert panelists for this insightful video. From my perspective, I could say the impact of COVID-19 on the real estate market in Zambia could be as follows:

  • Impact will not be uniform across all sectors. Could expect a neutral outlook on residential market, except for the high-end segment which has been affected as most would-be occupiers of these properties have been repatriated to their countries.
  • The commercial market may be most negatively impacted i.e. closure of restaurants, pubs, cinemas and companies opting to have their workers on rotation basis or work from home. Tenants may struggle to make lease payments resulting in reduced turnover.
  • The industrial market may not be so hard hit and may recover quicker as social measures are easier to introduce.
  • The vulnerability exposed by the pandemic on the global supply chains stemming from lock downs and border closures with neighboring countries may prompt the agricultural sector to shift trends and fill the gap of servicing the local market which opens up investment opportunities in the sector.