Buyers have come round to accepting reality, says Steward

Although Cape estate agents now accept that their turnovers this year will in no way match those of 2007, there have recently been signs of movement in the market, says Lanice Steward, MD of Anne Porter Knight Frank.

 “I know this is the sort of statement that estate agency spokespeople are expected to make, but it is based on wholly valid figures,” said Steward.  “The market is by no means dead.”

 Much of the action, said Steward, stems from the fact that sellers are, at last, coming to grips with the realities of the market.

 “For a long time many sellers simply closed their eyes and ears and refused to accept the data that good agencies produced on current prices – but that has at last changed.  Sellers now accept that prices previously were often totally unrealistic.”

 The lack of realism among some buyers, said Steward, was sometimes due to the sellers not being really serious about selling and simply testing the market.  Alternatively, they could be trying to find large sums of cash for another “dream” purchase, or simply struggling to pay off debt, which, especially among the new middle class, quickly got out of hand.

 Where houses are realistically priced, said Steward, they do still find buyers – often in a very short space of time.

 “One of our agents, Angela Magna, recently sold a home within 24 hours of getting the mandate.  This was because the seller was shrewd enough to accept the well-researched data relating to recent sales in her area and, more importantly, the sales prices of similar properties still on the market in that area.”

 Almost no sellers who have owned their property for three or more years will ever lose money on a property sale, added Steward.

 “Sometimes they forget that a 100% increase over five years is unprecedented in the SA property market’s history,” said Steward.  “In the ‘traditional’ market (i.e. before the boom) it was accepted that you had to wait at least two years before selling to make a profit and even then would be fortunate to make 10% after recovering your tax in the first year.”

 For further information contact Lanice Steward on 021 671 9120 or email lanice@anneporter.co.za.