The traditional popularity of Durbanville, among those looking to buy or rent homes has, during the last year, become even more evident than previously, says Louis Schoeman, the Rawson Property Group’s franchisee for this area.
“Anyone marketing homes in Durbanville has to get two messages out to the public,” says Schoeman. “The first is that Durbanville homes are now irrevocably in the middle, upper middle or top bracket price range and there are no low cost homes in the 16 districts that make up the territory. The lowest priced apartment here will cost above R700,000 and even the bottom rung housing in the area will now probably cost at least R1,3 million.”
The second, more important message, however, says Schoeman, is that no other middle or upper bracket area in Greater Cape Town can give anything like the value on offer in Durbanville.
“Homes selling in the R1,5 million to R2,5 million bracket are currently the most sought after and, almost without exception, they are, in my opinion, equal in every way – size, design, finishes, features, landscaping and general appeal – to homes which in Cape Town’s Southern Suburbs, are now priced double what is asked here. Although Durbanville is so popular (at one stage this year demand exceeded supply and we were running very low on stock), well built, well finished, two, three and four bedroom homes here are still inexpensive by Cape Town standards, especially when you consider the attractions of the Durbanville environment.”
The good value, adds Schoeman, is even more evident in homes in the top bracket.
“Anyone with around R3 million, or more, available for a home,” says Schoeman, “is absolutely assured of getting a genuine bargain.”
His team, he says, is marketing one of Durbanville’s most famous, most historic homes, which has been regularly upgraded and improved over the years. This home is superbly finished, with imported custom-built wood fittings and other expensive finishes – but the price is only R4,850,000.
“In Constantia this house would go for no less than R10 million and quite possibly for as much as R15 million,” says Schoeman.
The call for homes in the area, adds Schoeman, is increasingly coming from younger people, the ambitious, upwardly mobile set who appreciate what Durbanville has to offer: good schools and sports facilities, a semi-rural village atmosphere with attractive vineyard and wheatland surroundings, larger than usual plots and up-to-date, attractive retail facilities.
Durbanville buyers, says Schoeman, tend to have good credit records, high incomes and have very little difficulty in raising bond finance.
“Bonds have never been a problem for this franchise and our hit rate on applications is as high as 90%.”
Demand, warns Schoeman, is, at last, pushing prices up at over 10% per annum and he predicts that this will continue for all of 2014 and probably even beyond that.
“A recent Deeds Office report,” says Schoeman, “has shown that the average price of a home in Durbanville in 2012 was R1,2 million. In 2013 it reached R1,5 million. That is a far larger increase than the 10% quoted by myself – it is in fact in the region of 50%. Whatever figure buyers agree on, it is bound to be very high by South African standards.”
The call for homes in Durbanville led to stock shortages throughout the area earlier last year. This franchise then embarked on an ‘innovative’ campaign to counter these and now has a very satisfactory number of homes on their stock list. They are now, too, doing about 100 valuations per month and the accuracy of these, says Schoeman, has done much to further the Rawson Durbanville team’s reputation locally. In the year ahead, now that they have a ‘full complement’ of 16 agents, with every desk in their Langenhoven Street office occupied, they plan to double the number of valuations they do in the coming year.
Home prices in Durbanville are rising fast but it is still a real value for money territory..http://t.co/CnJ0tMsNwV #CapeTown #property— RawsonPropertyGroup (@RawsonGroup)
In rented property Durbanville’s prices are rising even faster than on the sales side. No sooner has a property been listed than it finds a tenant, says Schoeman. Apartments at Durbanville are currently priced at monthly rents of R4,000 to R6,500 and homes can be from R8,500 to anything up to R20,000.
