Property market suffers a dip

Whether choosing to list property for sale in Berea, or looking for a new investment, times are a little tough in the market at present due to numerous factors.

Chairman of the Seeff Property Group, Samuel Seeff, recently pointed out that they were hoping, like many others, that the technical recession would be fought off. However, that, along with a number of other global and political challenges, has ensured that the market is suffering a downward trend and the outlook for the remainder of the year looks quite flat.

One of the contributing factors locally was also the land expropriation issue. Earlier clarity provided by President Ramaphosa helped ease tensions among experts and those close to the industry, however, it will take some time before mass market understands the process. The President has already met with the likes of the Chinese President and UK Prime Minister, while also undertaking high level consults with stakeholders and agricultural bodies.

The general consumer is still being exposed to a lot of misinformation though, and this makes it more difficult to filter out unnecessary noise. However, experts are urging both buyers and sellers to look at the actual facts, and that is that it is still safe to invest in property in South Africa. In fact, it has been clearly stated that there will not be any toleration of illegal land grabbing, and that no wide-scale expropriation or nationalisation will take place during the process. In other words, your property rights will be protected.

Another positive note for those looking at the market right now is that even though the downward trend is visible, this is not even the worst situation within the last 20 years. The Global Financial Crisis brought about a worse situation, with Seeff reporting that they saw sales drop of around 25% year on year during that time.