Estcourt real estate offers real value
In 1976, one could buy a basic three bedroom house in Estcourt for R14 000 and an upmarket home in the best suburb for R28 000.
And though those prices have been relegated to annals of history, the town still offers very good value for money today, says Roy Emanuel, principal owner of Harcourts Town and Country in Estcourt.
According to Emanuel, who has run a successful real estate practice there for the last 37 years, one can buy a decent family-size house for under R600 000 and a quality home in the best areas for less than R1 million, value not easily matched in the bigger towns and cities.
On the back of its strongly performing agricultural and industrial sectors, Estcourt’s property market has held its own during the countrywide real estate slump, with demand consistently high in the R500 000 to R800 000 price range,…
Don’t make the mistakes that buyers did in 2012: Harcourts
Only one in every two buyers in South Africa is likely to realise their dreams of home ownership in 2013.
That’s the prognosis of Richard Gray, CEO of Harcourts Real Estate, on the back of tightening lending criteria, stock shortages in certain areas and growing competition among buyers.
While expecting the market to be more vibrant this year than it was in 2012 as a result of the stable, record low interest rate and a tradition of home ownership that has unfailingly trumped every economic downturn, Gray says it still presents major challenges to buyers.
Among the toughest of these is obtaining bond finance. “While mortgage originator ooba reports securing seven out of 10 loans for its applicants during the first three quarters of 2012, the national decline ratio came in at 48,8 percent, according to ooba’s November 2012 statistics. In essence, this translates to one in…
Second most expensive home ever sold in St Francis Bay
One of St Francis Bay’s canal-fronting mansions has just made local real estate history as the second most expensive house ever to be sold in the picturesque village.
Listed at R18,5m, it was sold to a KwaZulu-Natal businessman within 10 percent of the asking price, says selling agent and principal of Harcourts St Francis Bay, Esme Welman. During its time on the market, the property, which was featured on the Harcourts Luxury Portfolio website, received more than 2 200 hits from 27 different countries in eight languages.
Welman, while not at liberty to disclose the actual selling price, says the multi-million rand price tag befits the 1008m² “architectural masterpiece”, which boasts celebrity features such as a sliding roof over the entertainment area to enjoy night-time star viewing, indoor heated swimming pool, entertainment room and cinema complete with electric reclining seats. It also has its own mooring, automated…
Numbers of young professional estate agents rising in SA
Mirroring a similar trend in the USA, a growing number of young adults in South Africa are choosing real estate broking as a career rather than an occupation by default.
That’s according to Richard Gray, CEO of Harcourts Real Estate SA, after a recent survey within the group revealed that 29% of its agents were under the age of 40, and 12% were less than 30 years old.
This, he says, contrasts significantly with statistics released in September by the Estate Agency Affairs Board (EAAB), which show that the average age of estate agents in South Africa rose from 54 to 58 years old over the period September 2011 to September 2012. This, he notes further, is against a backdrop of an overall increase in agent numbers: the total number of registered agents in the country climbed from 36 000 to 40 000 over the same time period.…
Bring facts to the rates fight, advises Harcourts
Cape Town home owners who disagree with their 2013 property valuations will need to base their objections on fact if they hope to win their cases.
That’s the word from Jenny Shaw, Professional Associated Valuer and co-principal owner of Harcourts Back Wave in Cape Town. According to Shaw, next year’s residential property rates, which will be based on the general valuation (GV) of 1 July 2012, along with details of how to lodge an objection, will appear on the City of Cape Town’s website in February 2013 so that rate payers can lodge objections in March and April, prior to final implementation.
Shaw, who has in previous years conducted valuations for objections on behalf of the City of Cape Town, says consumers need to be aware of two things: that the valuations are based on actual registered property sales in the area, and that objections need valid…
Why Durban North is a perfect suburb
Durban North is the perfect suburb.
That’s according to Mark Zeller, principal of Harcourts Meridian in Durban North, a specialist real estate agency that opened its doors in Glenashley’s thriving Ashley Avenue business hub last month.
Zeller’s assertion comes after the release of FM’s annual suburbs survey (in partnership with Lightstone), which placed Durban North among KwaZulu-Natal’s top five suburbs for 2012 in terms of real estate value growth. He also measured the suburb against the criteria used in a survey of America’s best suburbs last year, which was featured on business website cnbc.com.
Says Zeller: “The perfect suburb, where you can be sure of realizing good long-term returns on your real estate investment, comprises eight critical components. These include location; lifestyle offering; reasonable commutes to workplaces; access to good schools, medical facilities and shops; upmarket neighbours; quality homes with a higher-than-national-average median value; comparatively low levels…
Property prices relative to income after eight years
Property prices, relative to income, are back to levels last seen around 2004.
That’s according to Ewald Kellerman, property analyst at FNB Homeloans and guest speaker at Harcourts’ Power Rally series, which took place around the country recently.
Commenting on current trends within the South African property market, Kellerman said house prices, which had shown year-on-year growth of 5% for the 12 month period September 2011 to September 2012, were rising more or less in line with inflation, which was recorded at 5% in August this year. This, along with improving selling times in the major metropolitan areas, improving affordability on the back of salary increases and an increase in bond grants by the banks, indicated that the market was recovering, albeit mildly.
“There’s a better balance between buyers and sellers,” he said, adding that in some areas, agents were reporting stock constraints for the first time in years.…
Germiston a gold mine for luxury home buyers
Luxury home buyers with an eye on value are forsaking traditional hunting grounds for Lambton and Klippoortje in Germiston, where similar properties cost up to three times less than in areas such as Bedfordview.
That’s the word from Simon Smith, principal of Harcourts Full Circle in Germiston, who says the city’s exclusive suburbs offer “tremendous value compared with those down the road”.
One of South Africa’s largest cities, Germiston is the seat of the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality which serves most of the East Rand and part of the Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Area. It’s a bustling metropolis, with 70 percent of the Western world’s gold supply passing through its gold refinery. It’s also home to a host of subsidiary industries and thriving industrial, retail and commercial components.
Klippoortje and Lambton, which has the added advantage of being on the doorstep of Germiston’s upmarket retail and business hub in Webber…