 in particular that you've seen because I know people at home sometimes end up wanting to you know on the example for business of cement end up wanting to go to you know those those I want to say shady hardware places that you find you know in townships or in areas where they kind of sell cement you see things like it's a brand you've never seen and it's like 20 rounds cheaper back than if you go to any of the major retail stores and we all know that that's just a red flag waiting to happen perhaps just talk to us about the rising cost of building material and you know they fit that that ultimately has on property development based on on the cost if you remember most of the items you mentioned they are either imported or certain parts of it are imported and if we talk primarily of the COVID period what we've seen is supply shortages due to whatever other reason may be you know everyone else claims COVID and lockdowns and what is essentially happens is they then use this to push the price up and unfortunately it's it's a case of supply and demand so when there's too little cement with a lot of demand that's what pushes the price up but what they then forget to do is when the demand slot starts to drop and the supply you know starts to be or the pressure starts to release they don't drop that price again and I think from that perspective prices are always going to be going up I mean we're not going to see a case where you know cement was was 80 round and it's back to 50 and those days are long gone you know everyone everyone all businesses are under pressure so from a supplier being a hardware these guys these guys need to make a profit to survive you know it all starts where they have to pay their employees because their employees also add to that cost so when you look at the business not the one you were talking about you know the spousal shop in the in the township that's why they can drop that price but if you look at our established hardware outlets I mean there's there's not a big variance in terms of price especially cement you know you get a bag and the variance would be a rand I mean I can't even say too rand because it's hardly too rand so from a cost perspective material across the board is subject to inflation when fuel goes up everything else goes up supply when supplies under constraints the price goes up those are just normal things I think you have to budget for it and you know if you've got a hundred rand to spend you need to spend less than a hundred rand you need to want less than a hundred rand but oftentimes we'd we'd have a hundred rand but we'd want something for 200 and I think that's where the problem comes in so now you start going because now that spousal shop starts to look very attractive now and I mean consequently you'd start buying inferior products the building starts to be unsafe and I mean there's just dire consequences that come thereafter and I think when we when we look at some of those dire consequences I notice one of those things that nobody wants to deal with and I think sometimes people are not honest about how they get themselves there you know I like this idea of if you if you've got a hundred rand uh spend almost in your head only only one things that are 90 rand or that come to 90 rand because you're going to find that that that 10 rand is going to creep in uh somehow so you almost want to expectation manage yourself and your budget uh with not putting too much pressure on us because the moment you end up having you know uh needs that are over that hundred rand as you say you that that's puzzle shop starts looking uh very attractive and and the reality is just the consequences of buying in stores like that is that it is inferior products and you are going to feel it you know there's almost no uh there's there's almost every guarantee that you're going to feel it when you have bought um inferior products and and you know right I'm keen to hear from you when it comes to certain innovations then that we've seen in the industry and and it can be in the last year or even longer I think one of the things with the industry is that it's obviously we're always evolving but what have been some of the innovations that we've you know seen particularly uh in the construction sector I'd speak from our perspective in uh you know because that's that's where I'd have some input but um in general construction used to be very uh in paper face-to-face contact but since the pandemic let's say it was the worst thing for the construction industry because nobody could work you know we were off work for a while so that was putting all construction businesses under pressure but then what we've seen is that people are starting to innovate to see how they could still address this market with the constraints that were there so you'd find consumers need work to be done but because of the fear of COVID they were actually putting that work off which which was I mean it was realistic it was expected but then what we started doing from outside on efficiency we started doing our virtual consult and that's where we'd allow clients to book a consult because let's let's face it if you wanted your room to be painted you've got a problem you can't wait until lockdown's over so what we've then done we've given clients the ability to almost book a consult but a virtual consult so we'd consult like we basically consulting now thanks to technology our cameras are actually better than our eyes so you could show me anything I'd be able to give you advice based on what I'm seeing so that's one of the innovations that the pandemic has actually pushed us into and I think going from here I don't see the market going back to the archaic way of needing to physically see someone in your premises so the in-contact would definitely change and I mean what that allows us it just gives us access you would be able to address someone's needs that's like geographically dispersed we would be able to attend to someone in a different province you know they'd be able to get expertise from someone in a different location and I think if you look at that it then gives the customer or the consumer a better quality of service and the competition landscape is much better and and I think you know when we talk about innovations and the move to you know the virtual world we know that certain aspects have been absolutely amazing like one of the downsides to the world opening up is that we're back to sort of in-contact meetings and even having to navigate traffic all over again one of the big shocks to my system has actually been driving to clients with certain meetings right I think there are certain things where I know I have to be on site but having to drive to meetings I've even forgotten how we calculate you know the amount of time it takes you to drive to a place and factoring in actual traffic because you know one of the other perks of when we were in sort of strict lockdown was that there was almost no traffic and so recently it's been quite a shock to my system that I am driving in full-on traffic again and a trip that would sometimes you know only be 20 minutes 30 at max can sometimes even go up to being 50 minutes and so having to just plan differently definitely you know is one of those things that has been a bit of a pressure point on on my side you know right one of the things that I do want us to to look at when we come back because I want us to go for a quick break is talking all things residential construction you know and what some of the trends have been there we know that people have been doing quite a lot of work in their homes because of COVID you know we're stuck in our homes spending quite a bit of time we did see even people you know pulling up their sleeves doing some DIY projects but of course we know that certain things you shouldn't DIY and you need experts to come in to do in your home I want us to go for a quick break and when we come back we're going to continue this conversation of course want to see who that lucky winner is of the 500 rounds in cash that is up for grabs I see an elder Everton has dropped us a comment on Facebook saying looking stunning summer with green hearts thank you very much there and elder and we're going to go for that quick break let's see who the lucky winner is remember if you call your name you want to make sure that you drop us a message down here below to claim your price and that lucky winner this evening is the lucky winner of our competition 500 rounds up for grabs what was to see when I do hope that she is watching at home do drop us a message down here below to claim that 500 rounds that is in the money bag was to see where Sanela is the lucky winner this evening but as we continue our conversation talking construction industry trends in 2021 I'm in conversation with right if may of the CEO at efficiency and I want us to look at residential construction because it really is one of those things I know many people at home have one have either thought of venturing into in terms of working on their homes and some have already you know done it perhaps just take us through what are some of the you know trends that you're seeing with residential construction especially during this COVID period and some of the mistakes people are doing as they you know start off with residential projects I know as we lead up to the festive season some are actually starting now we see a lot of that activity you know during this period and some people want to make sure that their homes look amazing for the holiday season I know for example in townships we've been doing stuff around this period because we know in December there are also weddings and when people come over you know for the weddings the house must look amazing so what what are some of the trends and what are the mistakes people are making when it comes to you know residential construction one of the nice things I can't say let's take it 10 years ago we'd use a plan and that could be the basis for actually doing the building or whatever but what I have seen in in call it the past year or so lots of consumers are actually getting to a point where they do you know they go I'm sure you one of those that go on to Pinterest and Instagram and do like storyboards and stuff so that's I think that's one of the highlights of this this let's say the change they say this paradigm shift I'd say that's the highlight for me because what it does it actually creates a clear expectation on both parts so the consumer knows exactly what they want and so does the service provider or the contractor and I think once we we are aligned in terms of expectation and what we are supposed to deliver I think the problems that emanate there from are quite little a big problem comes in where the client wants a lot you know and they they have a picture in their mind and the contractor has a different picture or is unable to understand what the client wants and that's where you find these discrepancies major issue and I think and I I agree with you a lot of us now create our mood boards we've gone contrast we've gone private properties you know websites you'll get other homes and you know what the finishes in those homes are because we obviously even get able to you know get tours of the different properties so we really are slightly more empowered to say to a contractor this is the kind of stuff I'm looking for we're not kind of sitting back and waiting for them to give us everything but we have a really nice idea and we even have a visual representation of what that looks like which I think is absolutely important but then we're going to talk about the mistakes you I think you pointed out that one great thing that we do do and certainly the trend or the shift in trends from from what used to be but what are the mistakes that we're making because I really want viewers at home to to even sometimes before going into a project be aware of some of that mistakes other people are making so they don't make them I mean the one big one that we've we've been hopping on has been around being a penny pincher in in your you know in your construction project and this one we always just hop on even with any aspect of you know the property value chain is yes you must negotiate and and certain things are you know very well negotiable but you also need to realize the point at which you're now being a penny pincher as opposed to you know fair negotiation and that if you're going to cross that line to you know being the penny pincher something is going to ultimately you know be it's going to be at the cost of some things and you need to fundamentally understand that so besides people who are penny pinches and you know cheapskates what are some of the mistakes other mistakes that you know people at home typically make when it comes to construction and projects in in their respective homes I want to actually talk to your point about penny pinching so although we find the situation where people are quite tight first that I also think in their defense they don't know they don't have a benchmark so you know you'd want a dream home you'd see this dream home and you'd think 50 000 more than enough to build that dream home when in essence you need a million rent for example so I think because of the absence of that information that's where clients start to take the 50 000 want to build a castle when in essence you can't even build a garage to the castle so that's where we're finding a lot of issues and you know the client then tends to scale back in terms of material purchases they go to Zama spaza shop you know what I'm saying and then they get a service provider or let's call it an artisan that's that's not I wouldn't say qualified but they wouldn't take an artisan that has that ticks all the boxes that they would have taken well was the budget in order so I think it just comes from the availability of information regarding that costing so what I would say if you're doing a big project the best thing would be to actually get the proper costing done you know before going in venturing going to buy material looking for quotes and contractors because let's face it if three contractors give a quote but all three contractors don't really ever sense you know that they desperately want this job everyone's going to cut the next one so Zama would think that look I'm getting a good deal when in essence once the contractor has the money he's already short to finish the project and that's where you know that's where chaos breaks loose so first thing to do get a proper costing look sometimes it costs a bit of money rather spend that small I would say this burst that small amount of money to get that information which would save you in the long run and I think that would allow you to get a much better return on your nights I it will save you on sleepless nights so you definitely want to make sure that you don't go to right each puzzle shop where you are you know working on your project that's quite a big thing that you need to always be careful of and you know that bill of quantities is so important because as you say people just don't have a concept of of the costing I think I am unfortunate I have a very good sense of what a lot of these things cost depending on the kind of property where you are the nature of the finishes how much you should you're looking at per square meter so you know that if you're looking at sort of very modern finishes sometimes it could even be you know it's it would typically be over 11,000 per square meter sometimes right because it also depends on the nature of the finishes that you want and those always just drive up the cost and but the reality is not many people at home are able to even wrap their head around you know you want to do something it's 80 square meters and if we're costing it at you know let's say 6,000 per square meter this is what it's going to be looking like and even that 6,000 per square meter I think it usually just shocks people right because you're just like listen and that's that's being on the prudent side uh and and because that's actually relatively low sometimes and they're thinking but it's just such a small you know little thing um and if it's you know if it's for example a 30 square um or a 60 square meter you're already looking at you know over 300,000 for for that costing per square meter and so sometimes people at home always just struggle to wrap their head around certain things and as you say end up going to a a right hems puzzle shop which of course as we're seeing earlier does cost you in the long run and sometimes it even costs you during the project uh because one of the things is when inferior products are used you see it from the get go and redoing work is not something nobody wants to do you know rather do it right the first time if it means you need to do your construction in phases and then so be it especially if you you don't have the time to kind of wait a long period of time to save up then rather you know do it in phases as much as possible and you know rave because i know that we're slowly going to be wrapping up i'm keen to hear from you you know some of the developments uh that efficiency has made uh throughout considering you know the pandemic when you already spoke to one of them with virtual consultations but how have you kind of gone and adapted um the way you do business because we already know covid isn't going anyway so and as much as the world kind of opens up we've also just fundamentally shifted in how we view things and um and how we do business well if i look at it i mean the virtual consults is one of the big things for us because that allowed us what we were finding during covid is that lots of clients were hesitant to allow us to come and do work i mean they needed the work done be residential commercial but because of the pandemic and because of the fear of the pandemic people were holding off on this so the virtual consults on our part was a definite leap in the right direction and this has seen that lots of uh clients that would have possibly not engaged with have started engaging with us and what we've also done speaking to your cost in no not the 6 000 random square meter to 11 000 we've actually built a tool where clients could go on and they could use that tool to you know take a dream house you choose a different level of finish and it'll give you a thumbs up it gives you a ballpark look i mean zama wants marble tiles worth 800 square meter i want 250 grand porcelain tiles so it's never going to cater to you 100 percent but it gives you a ballpark so you'd be able to know for my 80 square meter if i want moderate finishes i should be prepared for 400 000 for example so you know that 200 thousands not going to get you anywhere nearby and you wouldn't even try that exercise with 200 000 so those are the type of developments that we've started putting into place so that the consumer out there could get better information at their disposal because essentially that the consumer is what we require for the industry to to remain let's say to remain sustainable hmm and and rave before we wrap up this evening uh any forecasts in terms of trends for 2022 people are definitely going to be more virtual interest is just going to get better mood boards people are just qualifying home people that are working at home or that are not in construction becoming interior decorators not by qualification but by social media standing so it's exciting it's exciting and it's nice to deal with informed consumers you know so i do think that the the previous generation of construction service providers is going to need to shake it up because the consumers out there are informed and they know exactly what they want well rave that is where we're going to leave it at this evening thank you so much for joining us on the show thank you thank you and that is rave mayor who's the ceo at efficiency wrapping up there's the addition of the private property park cost with myself because i'm a don't want tomorrow speaking all things construction industry trends in 2021 and i see that we unfortunately did not have the winner claim their price we'll see what zanelle didn't claim that 500 rand so it goes into the money bag and we're going to have a thousand rands tomorrow evening and that is where i'm going to wrap it up this evening on the private property park cost my son was a mountain walk malo by the novel on your screens at 8 p.m i'm back tomorrow evening as we wrap up the week of course at 7 p.m until then hope you're staying home and staying safe