After four years as the franchisee for the Rawson Property Group in the Southern Cape town of George, Stephen Lubbe says that he has learned two important facts about residential property marketing.
These he said are that:
- The agent’s commitment to service and a dedicated approach in general are the all important factors leading to success; and
- To achieve this, an initial thorough training followed by ongoing training thereafter are absolutely essential.
“In my view the Rawson Property Group’s training is more thorough than any other national group and is of huge benefit to property buyers,” said Lubbe.
Lubbe, who now employs twelve agents locally and whose franchise took the bi-annual prize for the best Rawson Property Group franchise in the Southern and Eastern Cape, added that the 2009/2011 recession had been exceptionally difficult for all Southern Cape estate agents. Prices throughout the region, he said, dropped by 25% to 40% and at one stage there were almost no buyers. Gauteng buyers who usually comprised 25% of the total buying population were, he said, “simply nowhere to be found”.
Now, however, the area is experiencing a property revival and confidence is returning rapidly to the residential market.
“Several property franchises in holiday areas, all of which were hard hit by the recession,” he said, “have reported that this year the holiday/second home market has begun to show life once again and the plain truth is that in the first seven months of this year, our unit sales were 15% up and our turnover sales 22% up on the same period last year. We now predict that the coming summer season will see an equally big upturn on the same months last year.”
At the moment, said Lubbe, demand is primarily for property in the R 1,2 million to R1,75 million bracket, but now for the first time in several years he is also fielding increasing enquiries for properties valued from R2 million to R6 million – and he does, in fact, have saleable stock valued at up to R20 million.
“Those looking to buy now in the upper middle and top brackets,” said Lubbe, “are in my view being exceptionally shrewd because they will still benefit from the huge discounts that the recession caused but in ten years’ time today’s prices will, I predict, seem ludicrously low.”
For further information please contact Stephen Lubbe on 083 254 3619.
