Property market seen slowing down

The residential segment, which has seen growing valuations and rentals in the past years, particularly in the greater Gaborone area, is expected to experience a decline in pricing as developers may struggle to get affordable loans to buy or develop these properties.

A Bank of Botswana Monetary Policy Report on the performance of different asset classes released last week, also found that the pressure has been persistent since mid-last year, round about the same time when capital markets started feeling the pinch of a liquidity crunch in the market. The liquidity squeeze was mainly due to higher government borrowing, which has been driving up interest rates.