With the appointment of Charl Cilliers as their franchisee for the KwaZulu-Natal Hibiscus Coast, the Rawson Property Group is signaling to the residential property sector that it foresees a steady rise in prices and values in this always popular KZN South Coast holiday territory.
Cilliers, who has taken on both a sales and a letting franchise for the Rawson Property Group, has said that in the nine main villages which his franchise will be serving – Hibberdene, Port Shepstone, Shelly Beach, St. Michaels, Uvongo, Manaba, Margate, Ramsgate, Southbroom and Port Edward – residential property prices dropped as much as 20% to 30% in the 2008 to 2010 recession, but, said Cilliers, they are now once again stabilizing and even showing slight signs of rising.
“What we experienced in the downturn,” said Cilliers recently, “is much the same as that which happened in most South African coastal areas where 50% or more of homes were holiday, second or potential retirement properties. People hard hit by the economic downturn found themselves having to get rid of their extra properties and the Hibiscus Coast went through one of the severest slumps in all its history, making it a real buyer’s market in which some fortunate people were able to pick up amazing bargains.”
However, said Cilliers, this part of KZN has never been too expensive: although it can and does attract huge crowds in the school holidays and up to 200,000 people for a single three or four day sports or music event, it is still an affordable middle class family holiday venue, with sectional title prices on average from R800,000 to R1,2 million and the majority of freehold homes priced from about the same base level to R1,4 million.
“Obviously, as elsewhere in KZN, we have a few outstanding millionaire homes priced at R5 million, R10 million or even R15 million, but in general this is a territory where prices are not as high as properties on the KZN North Coast,” said Cilliers.
In three years’ time, he said, the situation could be very different. He foresees a slow but steady increase in demand and year-on-year price rises from here onwards. Anyone buying now, he expects, is very likely to see his property appreciate by some 5% per annum by the end of 2017, especially if it can be rented out. In the off season sectional title apartments attract rentals of R650 per day and in the holiday season rents rise to R1,000 or more per day, with luxury beachfront units able to charge R3,000 or more.
As Cilliers has operated here for seven years, both as an employee of an estate agency and then as the owner of his own company, he already has a large rental client database, many of whom return year after year for repeat bookings.
Cilliers has stressed that for many the South Coast is the perfect getaway destination. It has, he reminded us, miles of safe beaches, excellent offshore and rock fishing, luxuriant plant and animal life, international standard golf courses and a wide range of tourist orientated facilities: hotels, B&Bs, restaurants, bistros, water parks, game reserves and, at the Wild Coast, a very popular liked casino.
“The popularity of our area has never been in doubt. This, I believe, is a very good place in which to invest in property,” said Cilliers.
