Dear {{contact.first_name}}
2025 has started with a bang!
Shots have been fired literally and figuratively in every conceivable way.
From President Trump's inauguration speech, sending in troops to battle drug cartels and secure the southern border of the US to 13 South African soldiers being killed in escalating conflict in the DRC.
There are some serious statements being made by world leaders and things are getting heated early in 2025.
Considering how much has happened this month, here are some of the highlights.
The Good:
- Cape Town voted the number 1 city in the world!
- The common sense revolution has begun.
- The US government recognises only 2 genders.
- Political change is sweeping across the globe.
- Interest rates go down ( 0.25%) again.
- 3 new positive bills for property get passed.
The three new Bills are the:
1. Housing Consumer Protection Bill
2. Preservation and Development of Agricultural Land Bill
3. Marine Pollution (Prevention of Pollution from Ships) Amendment Bill
The bad:
- Loadshedding is back
- The Rand is losing much of its strength
- The land exploration bill gets passed (23 Jan 2025).
The ugly:
- The ANC blindsides it's GNU partners pushing the bill through without consultation
- 13 SA National Defense Soldiers killed in DRC
- SA's involvement in the DRC conflict is getting ugly.
- Trade war fears amidst US's major tariffs rollouts
January has clearly shown that there are some major changes coming in 2025.
President Trump is following through on tariffs on multiple major economies and there have already been massive rollbacks in laws passed in the Biden Era. Within his first week in office, he also rolled back the clock on many " Progressive " Democratic policies.
One thing we do know about 2025 is that there will be a lot of global change happening, and this creates uncertainty for investors.
This combined with the pro US laws and policies being passed will likely mean that much of the western world's free capital will be flowing into the US economy as many other markets come under fire from the Trump administration's policies.
There is also much uncertainty in the South African economy:
The Property market is slowly moving in the right direction as interest rates come down slowly but surely and consumers recover from 5 tough years.
This year will be a year of rebuilding that is for sure.
So keep your heads down and let's focus on what you can control, in your personal finances, business and property portfolio in 2025.
Yours in property
Jacques Grove
Principal and Dreamer
