On 1st August the Rawson Property Group’s very successful Paarl franchise, which since 2005 has been owned and run by Lizette Joubert and which, earlier this year, ranked third in the Rawson Property Group’s Western Cape performance placings and fifth nationally, has opened a satellite branch in Paarl East.
The new offices are in the Paarl East SAP shopping centre on the corners of van der Stel and Broadway roads.
Joubert’s husband, Arno, who, like herself, has a retail background, has taken on the management of the new office. He will have three new agents, one of whom, said Joubert, is among the most experienced property marketers in Paarl. A rental agent will also be recruited before the end of this year.
The Rawson Property Group is the first estate agency to establish itself and to sell in Paarl East. Joubert said recently that, after investigating the current position of the home market in Paarl East, she realized that the local community had for many years lacked contact with experienced and trained agents equipped to advise them all along the line. As a result, she said, ‘unfortunate’ incidents such as inadequately prepared legal documentation had regularly complicated property deals in the district.
“We are now convinced that there is a real need for a trustworthy property team here. Residents in Paarl East, for example, have not yet been exposed to a good bond origination service of the kind that we can provide, e.g. through Rawson Finance.”
Her research, said Joubert, has shown that the property market in Paarl East is alive and well, with a high percentage of residents being long-term – some in fact have not lived anywhere else. Elderly people here, she said, frequently only sell to their children – and often then stay on in a section of the house.
Other signs of the area’s stability and improved status, she said, are that 70% of the residents are married and 70% of today’s buyers tend to be between the ages of 22 and 40.
Her research, Joubert added, also revealed that there are approximately 5,500 houses in Paarl East, of which roughly 68% are freehold homes, 22% are sectional title and just under 10% are in estates.
“The area,” she said, “is solidly in the middle to lower middle price bracket. Home prices range from R300,000 to R1,2 million here, with the bulk of the demand now in the R500,000 to R800,000 price category. In Denneburg and Klein Parys prices are higher, i.e. from R800,000 to R1,2 million.”
One figure which she came across that had particularly impressed her, said Joubert: the monthly expenditure on food in Paarl East has been estimated at around R16 million, which means that, on average, households are spending around R3,500 each month on food.
Paarl East, she added, in the coming years, will almost certainly have more first time home buyers than the average Western Cape precinct – and the Rawson Property Group team have taken efforts to become au fait with this type of bond application process. Now that South Africa’s major banks are offering credit clean applicants 100% bonds if the family’s combined income is between R18,000 to R23,000 (each bank has different criteria) this market is likely to grow fast, said Joubert.
The area served by the new franchise includes Charleston Hill, Elriche Estate, Klein Nederburg, Langvlei, Amstelhof, Denneburg and Klein Parys. The less affluent Chicago precinct is also being served and already one sale has been notched up there.
