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SA estate agents take more than 3 months to sell a home

Caroline de Wet*
13 January 2010

But "property sales activity" is up dramatically

RE/MAX offices in all nine provinces participated in a national survey investigating national property sales activity and the current state of the South African real estate market and report the following:

Dramatic increase
92% characterized the increase in property sales activity as dramatic compared to the previous six months.   76% of RE/MAX offices recorded an increase of up to 25% in sales activity, 18% an increase of 26 - 50%, and 6% an increase of 51% and higher.

Most active price brackets
Polled on the most active property price brackets, 34% said sales activity for properties in the R750 000 - R999 999 category was where most movement was recorded.  This was followed by properties in the price range of R500 000 - R749 000 at 23%.  Homes valued below R500 000 constituted 13% of most active sales, and the same percentage was recorded in the bracket for homes valued between R1 million - R1,5 million.

Price negotiation
When the offices were asked to which percentage sellers can further negotiate down prices of a homes, 50% said between 6 - 10% of a property's value, 24% said between 11 - 15%, and 16% said 1 - 5% of the value.

Time taken to sell
When asked what the average period is for a house on the market before it gets sold, 32% of respondents noted it took up to 3 months, 24 % of all offices recorded a period of four months and 14% said it can  take up to six months to sell listed properties.

Some opinions on the future:

Alliance Group
"In the first half of the year the property market will experience larger property liquidations and insolvencies than ever experienced in the country. In 2010 people will start spending more as the stock market continues to rally and the economic outlook improves. The property market, still burdened by debt, faces a long, hard slog, in fact our view is that the property market is indeed in a period of a slow, weak and dull recovery."

FNB Home Loans strategist - John Loos
Finally, 2010 arrives, and promises better times after a tough few years! December was the second month of year-on-year increase in house prices after almost a year of decline. The trend bodes well for a better 2010, after the market hit "rock bottom" in the first half of 2009 and thereafter began to show improvement. As such, it is realistic to expect a significantly better residential property price performance for 2010 as a whole.

Absa's Jacques du Toit, property economist

Housing market conditions are expected to improve further in 2010, but it is set to be a gradual process with nominal price growth forecast to remain in single digits over the next twelve months

Dr Andrew Golding, CE of Pam Golding Properties (PGP)
"We are looking forward to 2010 with great enthusiasm and optimism, having come through two tough trading years. The market seems to have reached its trough and if the last four months of 2009 are anything to go by, then we should be in for a steadily improving market through 2010."

Seeff Properties
A "cautiously optimistic" Seeff believes that this year will bring good news - increased demand for property, more sales as well as conservative price increases. We will see more activity and more demand which will translate into more sales provided that banks keep their doors open to providing more finance.

*For more insights from popular Gauteng estate agent Caroline de Wet, of RE/MAX 2000: Caroline's Blog; Join Caroline on Facebook;Follow me on Twitter

Click here to access Realestateweb's new property valuation tools! For less than R100 you can find out who owns a property, what they paid and whether they have a large mortgage - and what others have been paying in a suburb.

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Comments

 
 responses to this article

Buy Buy Buy! say the sellers.
I'm waiting for the global finace industry to collapse somewhere mid 2010 before I buy a bouse. Then we will see about "steady price increases" Suckers!
Wahahahahahahahahahahah!

by Gog on January 14 2010, 16:16
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This just in
Cautiously optimistic agent gent finds his own bum hole. More on this incredible story to follow.

by Jislaaik on January 14 2010, 16:30
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