One of SA’s most respected economists – Dr Roelof Botha – joins BetterBond

Published September 2026

Article insights:

• Dr Roelof Botha is BetterBond’s official economic advisor.
• Dr Botha brings more than 50 years of experience in the South African economy.
• He previously served as a Department of Finance policy advisor and PwC resident economist.
• His expertise includes the residential property market, monetary policy and economic forecasting.
• Dr Botha will provide independent economic insights and research to support BetterBond and the wider property industry.

Dr Roelof Botha, former Department of Finance policy advisor, Finmedia Economist of the Year, and for 28 years the resident economist at PwC, has been appointed economic advisor to BetterBond. Few economists in the country have read the South African economy from as many vantage points. Dr Botha is known across South African business media for measured, evidence-led assessments of the economy.

Over more than fifty years, Dr Botha has approached the South African economy from inside government, industry and the boardroom. He served as an economic policy advisor in the Department of Finance, headed the economics division of the South African Federated Chamber of Industries and spent 28 years as resident economic advisor to PwC. His research focus has included the residential property market and monetary policy, alongside macroeconomic forecasting and small business development.

He holds a doctorate in economics, has published more than 1,000 articles and research reports and has delivered keynote addresses at numerous conferences and seminars. Dr Botha has co-authored the monthly BetterBond Property Brief for several years, and the new appointment substantially widens that mandate. He will provide regular macroeconomic overviews to BetterBond’s management, staff and clients, focusing on the indicators and trends bearing directly on the residential property market. He will also lead new research supporting property developers and other participants across the residential value chain and will represent that analysis in media commentary and interviews.

“There is no shortage of economic commentary in South Africa. There is a shortage of the kind that holds up six months later,” says Stephan Potgieter, CEO of BetterHome Group Mortgage Origination and BetterBond. “Dr Botha has spent five decades reading this economy through every cycle it has produced. He has built his reputation on interpreting what the data supports rather than what the room wants to hear. For an industry where households commit to 20-year decisions, honesty and accuracy is worth a great deal.

“I take pride in my association with BetterBond, which plays a key role in the facilitation of home ownership in South Africa,” says Dr Botha. “This is a sector whose expansion is vital for driving economic growth, creating jobs and ensuring socio-political stability.”

Dr Botha remains a self-employed economic researcher and continues to advise other organisations, including the Optimum Investment Group, Currencies Direct and GOPA Worldwide Consultants. For BetterBond, that independence is central to the appointment. “Dr Botha’s value to us has never rested on his agreeing with us,” says Potgieter. “It rests on the fact that he brings an independent record to the work we publish, and that our clients, our estate agent partners and the public can weigh what he says on its own merits. That is exactly the standard we want applied to it.”