With over 100 real estate transactions facilitated in just ten months, Greeff Christie’s City Bowl office has had a stellar 2016, with highlights being the sale of two penthouses in Vredehoek for record prices of R8.5 million and R9 million respectively.
“The sales are significant in that they are indicative of an emerging, new, ultra-luxurious, sectional-title segment in the City Bowl property market, which has seen prices catapulted between R50 000 to R70 000 per m 2” says Ryan Greeff, Director of Greeff City Bowl.
Targeted at the upper echelon of the market, typically, these abodes include features such as hard wood floors, air conditioning throughout, fully integrated, imported appliances, as well as German or Italian designer kitchens and
cabinetry, plenty of parking solutions, storage space as well as unsurpassed views of city, mountain and sea.
“These pricing levels have traditionally been the exclusive realm of the Atlantic seaboard, however, as the City Bowl establishes itself as a location on par with the Atlantic seaboard, offering convenience, natural beauty and investment potential, we are seeing attraction and appetite from both local and international investors alike,” explains Greeff.
On the other end of the spectrum, Greeff says that there has been a shift in entry level price points over the past twelve months, with more and more first-time purchasers, assuming the position of ‘market takers’.
“Due to property price inflation, the affordability in the entry-level market is diminishing, and demand is so high for properties within a budget of R1,5 million to R2 million, that these buyers are settling for whatever they can get in the area, and this leaves little room for property preference, position, number of bedrooms or the availability of parking,” reports Greeff.
“We are specifically seeing a lot of activity in the one-bedroom, under R2 million market, as well as the two-bedroom market at the R2.5 million price point,” says Greeff.
Further up the spectrum, Greeff says that the housing sector sweet spot, where most of the current movement is to be found, is between the R4 million and R7 million segments. “Across the spectrum, buyers include investors and homeowners, both local and non-resident,” says Greeff.
“Another trend observed as we enter the tailend of 2016, is the increasing gap between sellers; aspirations/asking price and the actual market related prices obtainable by willing and able purchasers; Sellers’ expectations are thought to have been spurred on by the strong rally over the past two to three years in which we have seen City Bowl property prices increase by up to 20%+ year on year in some areas. This has created an expectation that the growth rate will continue to increase year on year in perpetuity – this is of course, unsustainable in reality,” says Marthinus Botha, Co-Director of Greeff City Bowl.
“At present, house price inflation has somewhat stabilized to around 10% a year, which, by most standards, is still a very attractive investment.”
“If you are considering selling, it is important to seek assistance from a professional and knowledgeable property broker with a proven track record in the area. He/she will be able not only to advise a seller of current market conditions, but also assist in the formulation of a fully integrated local, national and international marketing communications strategy, which is necessary in order to achieve a maximum return on a real estate investment,” says Botha.
Ryan Greeff and Marthinus Botha believe that their City Bowl team represents an emerging sector of dynamic professionals who view real estate brokering as a serious full-time career option.“Our 16-strong staff complement, hold among them, more than eight post and under-graduate degrees in the marketing/business/real estate related field; This gives us the ability to put together marketing campaigns and strategies on par and in line with the latest global thinking and standards. These fresh new approaches have been highly successful in achieving top results in the sale of our clients’ real estate assets”.
“While we take the achieving of a client’s maximum return on their investment very seriously, we don’t lose sight of the fact that as we are often dealing with a client’s single biggest asset, there is invariably an emotional element to these transactions and we stand by Greeff’s credo of “putting the personal back into property”, adds Botha. “Furthermore, our exclusive affiliation with Christie’s International Real Estate allows us to tap into a pool of international purchasers – a market otherwise elusive to local estate agents.”