#PropertyReport: Optimism abounds as 2024 dawns

Ask many people and they will say 2023 felt like a long, difficult year. Ask property practitioners and I think the majority, if not all, will concur.

Most of us suffer from short-term memory syndrome, so I thought this would be the perfect time to look back at 2023 in the property market.

It was definitely one of the more challenging years since 2018/2019.

A recent report by Lightstone shows that volume and Rand value was down a fair old chunk from 2022, although that gap will be narrowed once the last two months’ statistics come through.

Even with that, 2023, nationally, will be down from 2022 on both of those scores by a large enough margin.

In a recent survey, also conducted by Lightstone, they interviewed property practitioners and 45% said they didn’t think their company reached its sales target in 2023, which is a significant amount.

The first half of last year was one of the toughest owing to the consistent interest rate hikes which made many buyers take stock, sit on the fence, and hold off on their property purchase.

This is an understandable reaction as humans generally fear the worst and go into an ultra-safe mode in case the worst-case scenario does indeed happen; meaning the Reserve Bank keeps on increasing the interest rates.

Thankfully, that didn’t happen. We saw confidence grow back in the second half of the year.

My company had a very good end to the year which made up for the weaker first half, but nationally, the stronger second half didn’t make up for the first half.

However, in the same Lightstone survey, 74% of the interviewed property practitioners expected their company to hit sales targets this year.

I concur with this view.

There is a real sense and feeling that the momentum gained at the end of 2023 will continue into 2024, certainly for the first quarter and hopefully for the first half.

Interestingly, even with the drop in volume and demand, prices remained solid with house price inflation being between 2.51% and 4.05% year on year every month last year across the country.

A deeper dive into the provinces shows Limpopo, Western Cape, and Mpumalanga the clear winners in terms of house price inflation, with KZN and Gauteng towards the bottom of the table.

In the same table, freehold marginally outperformed sectional title; coastal beating non-coastal properties and low to mid-price beating high and luxury.

And finally, reasons to move in 2023?

The four main answers when surveyed (in order) were: security, lifestyle and amenities, space to work from home and alternative energy sources.

Personally, I think we have a lot to look forward to this year, and I have a feeling that the 74% of the property practitioners surveyed might be right.

Follow The North Coast Courier on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & YouTube for breaking news

WhatsApp Broadcast Service: https://chat.whatsapp.com/BdGZsGJEAf04AXZ2yLWi8T