AN ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPACT OF EXCHANGE RATE FLUCTUATIONS ON THE PERFORMANCE OF THE REAL ESTATE SECTOR IN ZIMBABWE

Abstract

The investigation sought to assess the connection between the exchange rate fluctuations and property sector performance in Harare. Zimbabwe’s real estate sector is undergoing a dip in terms of sales and vacancy levels. The real estate sector in Harare has been growing at a very slow rate in recent years resulting in thousands of jobs and the viability of the whole economy being threatened. A pragmatist approach and descriptive research design was applied in the investigation. A stratified random sample of 171 respondents was used in the administration of survey questionnaires were used. Primary data was collected by using survey questionnaires while secondary data was obtained from past researches, journals, reports from the Real Estate Institute of Zimbabwe (REIZ) and other exiting literature. Data was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. The major findings of the study were that from the research overwhelmingly confirm to the hypothesis that exchange rate fluctuations had a negative impact on real estate sector performance in Zimbabwe and from the correlation tests done in the study, it was concluded that there was a strong negative correlation between exchange rate fluctuations and real estate sector performance. This implied that a stable exchange was key to the growth in real estate sector and was an imperative deliverable by the monetary authorities.