CAPE TOWN - Houses in Cape Town's iconic Atlantic seaboard fetched a R21.75 billion in sales for the 12-months to end November with an average transaction value of R2.2 million.
Figures from real estate agencies across the country revealed that said the metro gained the highest prices paid for residential property in the country this year
The city was followed by Pretoria with sales topping R17bn and Sandton at R13.4bn, Johannesburg recorded R13bn worth of sales with a transactional value of R1.483m and Durban with R6.4bn.
RE/MAX of Southern Africa Regional Director and chief executive Adrian Goslett said despite the weak economy, the property market showed nominal house price growth more or less in line with inflation.
Goslet said however the property market was near the bottom of a downward cycle, and that it was on the cusp of a long-term corrective journey.
“The property market was off to a slow start in the beginning of the year building up to the elections. Thereafter, activity slowly picked up. It is not uncommon for market activity to pick up following an election period,” he said.
The Atlantic Seaboard and City Bowl sales amounted to R4.3bn, including 30 of the highest prices paid.
Semigration buyers were back in Cape Town and foreign buyers had invested over R500 million in property in the city with the highest demand from German, UK and US buyers.
Cape Town reported about 50 high-value sales priced from R20m-R60m, compared to just two in the upper end of Sandton/Johannesburg and a highest price of R23 million.
The residential property was expected to remain broadly stable in 2020, reflecting marginally higher house price growth and higher numbers of transactions, and in spite of macro-economic threats.
HouseME chief executive Ben Shaw said the bottoming out of the market was still a few months off. HouseME is a digital letting platform.
Shaw said no real improvement in the stagnant residential housing market was expected until the final quarter of 2020.
He said rental growth across the entire country had been below inflation most of the year, resulting in real losses for landlords.
“Rental prices have been unable to match inflation as tenants have an abundance of supply to choose from,” Shaw said. “In the Western Cape, for example, 57 percent more residential building plans have become available in 2018-19, compared to a more reasonable 11 percent growth in 2017, a year when the market was stable.”
Shaw said 23 percent more new flats and townhouses were completed nationally in the first half of 2019 compared to the same period in 2018. “Tenants are genuinely spoiled for choice,” he said.