The increased activity in the property market has safeguarded against house price depreciation across most sectors, meaning that homes are not selling for bargain prices.
In the lower price segments, for example, there are many transactions taking place but not much in the way of price reductions, notes Adrian Goslett, chief executive of Re/Max of Southern Africa.
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“Sellers are not taking a knock in this segment – in fact, in a lot of cases, there are multiple offers, so prices have been driven the other way.”
The higher-price bracket – about R4 million and above – is the only category seeing “fairly substantial” price reductions, from 10% or even 20% off the initial asking price.
“There are still offers on these homes, and we are selling in those brackets, but these homes are taking a lot longer to sell and sellers are taking a knock in price.”
While he does not believe a R4m home could ever be considered a bargain, Goslett says this is the time to purchase a bigger space – the home with the garden and the view, if that is what a buyer is after.