The sun is shining and things always seem a bit better when it starts moving toward summer. For estate agents, it seems things are improving after a tough battle while they were shut down for three months during
hard lockdown
.
Last week, I went with a friend to view a bachelor’s apartment on the
Atlantic Seaboard in Cape Town.The flat was going for at least R200 000 less than bachelor flats were selling in the area pre-Covid.
It was a complete fixer-upper but was in a well-established and well-run building. However, it did not have a parking bay. What I found interesting was the agent’s confidence the flat would sell quickly.
“These small flats under R1.7m are flying off the shelf,” he said. Who are the buyers, I asked? “Anyone who wants to use the bank’s money and make use of the low-interest rates.... not so many cash buyers anymore... many first-time home buyers, and even some older single people close to retirement.”
And the
? “Some are people looking for liquidity, who may have had a second apartment and want to sell it.”
It is good to see the movement of property as it bodes well for the economy. It is also good to see the big agencies who have survived one of the worst times in their history return to print advertising in our national property supplements, bolstering hope that even though things may seem bleak, life goes on.
After we viewed the flat last week, my friend and I went to a local coffee shop and I picked up our weekend newspaper. The joy of having the property section fall out and she and I fighting over who could read it first brought back some semblance of a time before Covid-19. It made me think that after every winter, a summer must come.
Hang in there, summer is still coming.
Warm regards
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