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PROPERTY NEWS
Neighbourhood
22 AUGUST 2020
Buyers seek a safe haven in Plett P
lettenberg Bay property is back in business. “Despite the challenges brought by the Covid-19 pandemic, our market is active again, in fact more so than it’s been for some time. While about 90% of all sales fall below R4m, the market is active across the board,” says Kevin Engelsman, Seeff licensee. There’s lots of activity in the R7m to R9m range, but agents are also quite busy showing homes from R10m to R15m and also in the R18m to R25m range. The luxury end of the market is also on the up with renewed demand for high-end R20m-plus properties. “The perception that property prices are negotiable is only true where properties are not priced in line with the current market. Where they are correctly priced, sellers are achieving close to and even the full asking price,” Engelsman says. Given that sellers have only one chance to create a favourable first impression, new listings are currently attracting the most attention. It’s therefore
TIFFANY’S BEACH, SALT ROCK, KWAZULU-NATAL
BRACKENRIDGE
important to stage a property in a way that will create a strong demand for it. “Bear in mind,” he says, “that most sellers in Plettenberg Bay don’t need to sell, especially if it’s a secondary property holding, and they’re prepared to wait for the right price. Where sellers do offer a discount on the asking price, it’s generally only about 5% to 10%.” Low offers are not accepted, and the buyer simply risks losing out on the property, even at the top end of the market.
WFH
A key emerging trend in Plettenberg Bay since the onset of the pandemic is that people are now buying to work from home. Engelsman says there has been quite an influx into the town since late March as people look to enjoy better surroundings while confined to their homes and working from home.
Consider rentals
There’s also been a major pick up in the rental market with a shortage of stock, especially at the higher price levels being the R17,000 to R25,000 per month range and some demand ranging to R27,000 per month. It’s therefore a great opportunity for property owners to put their homes into the rental market or to invest in property for the rental market right now. “Overall, the demand for property is currently much higher than the number of new listings that are becoming available. In contrast to what we may have expected, there’s a shortage of luxury stock for sale and rent and opportunities abound,” concludes Engelsman.
THE TIDES
KZN North Coast makes a strong comeback
A
fter almost three months without the ability to buy and sell real estate, the property market has seen a flurry of activity since the real estate sector became fully operational again. This resulted in the largest real estate group in Southern Africa, RE/MAX SA, reporting a recordhigh sales month of R2,38bn in June. Certain regions, like KZN, stand out as being the forerunners in this recovery. “This recovery is much needed to correct the drop in the year-todate sales figures for the group that stemmed from the inability to operate at alert levels 5 and 4,” says Adrian Goslett, regional director and CEO, RE/MAX of Southern Africa. Between January and July, RE/MAX of Southern Africa reflected an average drop of 19% in reported sales figures across all regions, while the KZN region saw only a 12% drop in reported sales. According to Grant Gavin, broker/ owner, RE/MAX Panache in Durban North, everything went quiet in the few months of lockdown but, when real estate could fully operate again in June, there was an opening of the floodgates. “We did notice a shift in May as enquiries slowly increased and more homes were being listed, but June was a record sales month. In fact, it was the best month in the history of our office – R180m in sales. This was the result of many active buyers not being
MATJESFONTEIN ESTATE
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able to get out during lockdown levels 4 and 5,” Gavin explains.
Competition
After alert level 3, a lot of stock came onto the market, but RE/MAX Panache has since been able to sell most of it. Gavin says that with so many homes sold in recent times, the market may even be shifting slightly towards the seller. “As more and more of the stock was sold, we started experiencing more competition for homes, resulting in more back-up offers on properties. We haven’t experienced this level of competition for a long time,” says Gavin. The low interest rate is also encouraging many first-time buyers to invest in real estate. While many buyers in his area have families, Gavin says there are some great opportunities for first-time buyers in markets like Gateway and Umhlanga New Town centre, Sunningdale and Umgeni Park.
No rest
As great as June has been in terms of generating sales in KZN and across the rest of the country, Goslett is cognisant that there’s still a long year ahead and that tough times are still to come in September, October, and November when UIF and other economic relief starts running out. “We need to keep working hard to ensure that we continue along the path towards recovery, because I do see challenges ahead,” he concludes.
