Cape Town’s Atlantic Seaboard is now in a buyer’s market phase, so say property agents Seeff.
The latest data from Propstats shows that the sectional title sector of the market is down by 34% in year-on-year value, and down by 41% in volumes up until April.
FNB’s most recent Property Barometer data also shows that Cape Town’s property market is weakening. This corroborates with Propstat’s figures.
Last April, the market generated almost R1-billion in sectional titles sales. This year, it has only managed to generated a little over R600-million. The price gap has doubled from 5.4% to 10.2%, with recent sales concluding at anywhere between 10.7% and 28.6% below the asking price.
Currently, it takes almost twice as long to sell a property on the Atlantic Seaboard. Time on the market has increased from an average of six months last year to just over eleven weeks this year.
According to Adrian Mauerberger and Cecily Sher, luxury sectional title specialists at Seeff, the amount of houses on the market have increased. Sellers, however, are not motivated enough to drop their prices sufficiently to encourage buyers to put pen to paper.
Private Property, a property listing site, shows that there are currently 1 843 properties for sale on the Atlantic Seaboard. Propstats, however, recorded only 88 property sales on the Atlantic Seaboard from the beginning of this year to early April.
The demand in the luxury sector is mostly between the R5-million to R10-million range, with Seeff noting that that it is mostly for own-use buyers looking to downscale.
Semigration demand has also dropped significantly, as this market has never really attracted foreign and investment buyers. Semigration involves people and families relocating from different parts of the country, and is a growing trend. Previously, Cape Town appeared to be the chosen destination for semigration.
Currently, only sellers who are willing to drop their price and ensure that their property offers more, at a lower price, will sell.
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