JOHANNESBURG - Considerably pent-up demand for residential property was likely to emerge if next month’s ANC elective conference provided clarity on South Africa’s political future and a positive outlook, said Pam Golding Property (PGP) group chief executive Andrew Golding.
This would result in a marked improvement in the local residential property market, Golding said yesterday.
Golding added that the ANC elective conference would either result in a business-as-usual outcome, which would see the national housing market remaining sluggish while activity continued to thrive in the major metros, or it could result in a marked rebound in business and consumer confidence. He believed three key trends would gather momentum next year.
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They were a growing demand for sectional title properties for lifestyle and economic reasons within the major growth nodes; estate living, which reflected the realisation that it was easier to share facilities without the upkeep; and a steady transition to more energy and water efficient homes.
Golding said the residential property market had held up well despite it having been a tumultuous year on many fronts this year and socio-political uncertainty setting the tone for much of South Africa’s economic activity.
Realistic sense
He stressed that even in the current environment, people needed somewhere to live and it was to a large degree a case of “business as usual” provided there was a realistic sense of the fact that at the right price and location there was “huge pent up demand”.
“Underpinning the ongoing sustainability of our housing market is an ever-increasing demand for housing which spans all sectors and price bands, further fuelled by an emerging middle class which is becoming increasingly prosperous across a broader base,” he said. Golding said building activity had not yet fully recovered to pre-recession levels, which meant demand appeared to be outstripping supply in many key hubs and prime locations, predominantly in the major metros.
This in particular applied to sectional title properties that were more affordable to purchase, less expensive to maintain and better suited to current lifestyles and offered security and lock-up-and-go convenience, he said.
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Golding said there had been a marked increase in the past five years in the sales of super luxury properties priced between R10million and R50m.
Sales of luxury properties, those selling for R3m upwards, remained steady. Golding attributed the continued demand for homes at the top end of the market to a number of trends, including a migration of high net worth buyers from north of the country to coastal areas, the investment market and a small increase in foreign buyers from Africa and other continents.