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A back garden view of this home on Riesling Street, a typical threebedroom, two bathroom home in Paarl which is priced at R2 250 000. On the right is the mountain view from the same house.
SALES IN R2 MILLION BRACKET SET TO GROW
Paarl market performs well When a property marketing franchise which is part of a group with just over 200 such franchises is rated third in the Western Cape and fifth in the group’s national rankings for March 2013, obviously something is going on there. This was said recently by Tony Clarke, managing director of the Rawson Property Group. The franchise to which he was referring was the group’s Paarl operation. “The Paarl group’s performance is especially remarkable because Paarl is a country town in which one would not normally expect sales to be on a par with those of the highly
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traded, more densely populated, urban suburbs,” said Clarke. Lizette Joubert, the Rawson Property Group’s franchisee for Paarl, said that her ranking in national placing bears out what she has long claimed would be the case, namely that Paarl is a residential district “whose time has now come”. “In the eight years that I have owned the franchise in Paarl, we have never seen prices drop, despite now having 200 homes on our stock list, nor have we ever quite had enough stock to meet the demand. Right now that is very much the situation, with the result that in the lower and middle brackets prices are now rising at between 5% and
7% per annum and sales are on average being achieved within 27 days and within 9% of the asking price, whereas previously the average was closer to 15%.” Although there is a growing interest in top priced homes, said Joubert, most of the “action” is still in the middle and lower priced brackets. Altogether 42% of her franchise’s sales this year has been in the R1 million to R1,5 million bracket and 45% in the R600,000 to R1 million bracket. The remaining 13% was, however, above R2 million and Joubert believes this proportion is likely to increase from now on. First-time homebuyers, she add-
R1 820 000
STELLENBOSCH
021 887 4740 021 889 9974
www.annabasson.co.za
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Bedrooms 2 | Bathroom 1 | Parking 1
ed, are now more in evidence and continue to drive the market. To ensure that each price category is adequately served by her eight agent team, Joubert has allocated them to specific areas. “We now have specialists serving delineated areas – and this includes the outlying, often upmarket suburbs such as Boschenmeer, Val de Vie and Pearl Valley. We are especially popular because we hold show houses every Sunday.” Joubert added that she is quite frequently told by buyers that as much as they love Paarl and would like to live there, its prices are now too high. “The answer to that, I have to tell
WEB 7683
Bachelor | Bathroom 1 | Cellar Parking
Renovated to perfection! Spacious central town flat in mint condition. North facing. Up market flat in central town. East facing. All furniture included.
them, is that, firstly, they should consider buying slightly below the standard they have become accustomed to because it is always worthwhile to get a foothold in Paarl; secondly, that prices are still low by comparison with our main ‘rivals’, Stellenbosch and Franschoek and, thirdly, that almost any buy in Paarl will be a good one because prices here will continue to increase significantly in the next five to six years – and there are not too many South African towns of which one can say that,” said Joubert. For further information contact Lizette Joubert on 083 469 8946 or email her at paarl@rawsonproperties.com.
R2 670 000
Jané 082 331 1664 Sarene 083 652 9173 R995 000
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Bedrooms 2 | Bathroom 1 | Garage
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Excellent location! Excellent investment! Duplex town house in well maintained security complex in the heart of Stellenbosch.