A war of words has broken out between estate agents and bond originators as news of a pending property crash gathers force, with price drops from 10 percent to 40 percent predicted.
While some agents insist homeowners should not be swept up in the panic, others are frank that the property market is in serious trouble.
On Monday, the Cape Argus received an e-mail marked "urgent" from ooba, formerly Mortgage SA, which charged that "recent alarmist forecasts by property market commentators" had caused homeowners "undue concern".
Homeowners, they urged, should not be swept up in the "scaremongering" because the current weakness was only a "short-term situation".
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The fracas started with a letter from Lew Geffen, head of Sotheby's International Realty South Africa, to his franchise owners in which he predicted the pending crash at a 40 percent decrease, adding that there were 60 percent fewer buyers in the market now than at the same time last year.
While other industry players have lashed back rejecting his predictions, Maurice Levin, PR manager for Sotheby's, has defended Geffen's claims.
"Lew is not afraid to pronounce that the industry is in a pickle. Many agency bosses talk it up because their livelihood depends on it," he said.
Lee Gautschi, owner of Lee Gautschi Properties, said she was "honestly" not experiencing panic-selling in her market.
She did, however, agree that there was a range of negative factors which had dampened the market.
These included the National Credit Act; hikes in interest rates; and "worldwide political trends of recession" that have had an impact on the local market, resulting in lower prices.
Media reports have also pointed to emigration spurred on by high crime rates; xeno-phobic attacks; and other factors such as power cuts, political dissent and corruption in the ANC.
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