Throughout South Africa, says Tony Clarke, Managing Director of the Rawson Property Group, estate agents are reporting that the strongest demand is now in the lower price categories. This, he says, is a pattern observable in almost all areas: in the Cape’s affluent Constantia Valley, for example, it is the properties in the R2 million to R4 million bracket – cheap by Constantia standards – that are selling fastest, while the market for the R5 million plus homes, although improving, is still a difficult one.
In Mitchell's Plain, to give another example, homes in the R600,000 to R850,000 bracket are finding buyers very fast, whereas those above R1,2 million still tend to stick.
In the Durbanville area, widely recognized as an upmarket precinct with above average prices, Louis Schoeman, the Rawson Property Group’s local franchisee for the area, reports that the strongest demand recently has been seen in one of the least expensive of Durbanville’s suburbs, Sonstraal Heights.
Here, says Schoeman, his team have found that they cannot list enough stock (at the correct prices) to meet the demand for homes. In Sonstraal Heights, he says, the average price is R1,3 million – inexpensive by Durbanville standards – and sectional title units can often be had for as little as R700,000.
One of the main reasons for Sonstraal Heights’ popularity, apart from its low prices, adds Schoeman, is that of its 3,450 homes 28% are sectional title and 70% of the freehold units are in well protected security estates, where the demand today is extremely strong.
With the more typical Durbanville homes, i.e. those priced from R1,5 million to R10 million, the big demand is for homes below R2 million. Most correctly priced homes at these values, says Schoeman, will almost always sell within two to six weeks but, he adds, there are now clear signs that the more expensive homes are once again beginning to attract interest that was simply not evident a year ago.
“One of the aspects of the Durbanville property market which has to be understood by anyone operating here,” says Schoeman, “is that the area appeals to buyers from all over the Greater Cape Town area – it is seen by many of these as the right place, both to live and to retire, and a high percentage of these people have already been successful in their professions or in business and have the capital to invest.”
Southern Suburbs buyers, adds Schoeman, are particularly attracted to Durbanville because they recognize that their rands go a great deal further here than they do in such popular areas of the Cape Peninsula as Rondebosch, Newlands, Claremont or Kenilworth.
Future prospects for Durbanville property, says Schoeman, will be enhanced – and stock shortages alleviated – by the approval of two large former farming/game park areas for residential development. The area to the west, which borders on Aurora, he says, will bring a wide variety of homes: single residential, group housing and a fair number of upmarket estates.
The other section now approved for development is on the northeast side of Durbanville next to Graanendal. The total area set aside here will eventually have some 20,000 homes, 4,000 of which will be serviced for delivery in the initial phase.
All the major estate agencies in Durbanville, including his own, says Schoeman, are now looking for experienced agents to cover the existing territory as well as to serve the new developments. Complete coverage of Durbanville, Schoeman has said on previous occasions, is always a challenge because it has no less than 16 sub-sections. However his team, which at the moment consists of eight agents, will, he believes, grow to 20 by the end of 2014 and he is confident that by then they will be handling anything from 15% to 20% of the total sales in the area.
Since taking over the Rawson franchise a year ago, Schoeman and his team have already doubled their sales.
For further information contact Louis Schoeman on 082 575 6644.
