2023 Year-end wrap up: Jansen Snyman

Here we are at the end of 2023, a particularly tumultuous year!

As I write this, the war in Ukraine continues unabated, and the one in Israel seems to be intensifying despite a couple of days of ceasefire. In South Africa, we do not need to rack our brains to find bad news and to top it all off, we are on the verge of an election year where typically promising the pie in the sky seems to be the only thing of importance to politicians.

2023 will be remembered in the property market for the return of reality and normality. The particular circumstances created by the Coronavirus impacted the property market profoundly and unsustainably, and the right-sizing of the market, both in interest rates and price, was therefore not unexpected.

Therefore, these circumstances are mostly external and not something we can influence. Managing our response to these external factors is the only impact we can have. In 2023, the words of Frankl often reminded me that when we can no longer change our circumstances, we are challenged to change ourselves.

Internally, we changed some things, we believe for the better. What we didn’t change was our passion for service excellence!

The outlook for 2024 seems stable. Socio-politically, plenty of challenges will require the world’s attention. Hopefully, they will be addressed with some form of compassion and love, as they should be. Closer to home, interest rates are stable, and the projections benign. There is no indication that the elections will not be substantially free and fair, all of which create the atmosphere for the property market to be active.

Overall, it was a balanced year with challenges and promises for all of us.

I wish you a festive and blessed year-end season and rest well!