More expats buying houses in SA

Johannesburg - South African émigrés are showing renewed interest in the South African housing market because of flagging job opportunities overseas.

Although no figures are available, various large property companies have confirmed that enquiries are mounting from South Africans overseas who want to return home. The number of deals effected is also rising.

Pam Golding Estates (PGE) Gauteng managing director Ronald Ennik says there is a definite increase in enquiries, and they have notched up several sales.

According to Lew Geffen, chairperson of Sotheby's International Realty in South Africa, those wishing to return are mostly South Africans who left this country within the past three years.

Louis van Niekerk, PGE's regional director for the Eastern Cape, Southern Cape and Karoo, agrees that interest in the Eastern Cape is also on the rise. One of the largest residential transactions ever was recently concluded in Walmer in Port Elizabeth. A R10m house was sold to a South African who had lived in the US for many years.

Jawitz Properties chief executive Herschel Jawitz points out that the global economic crisis has fuelled great uncertainty over jobs offshore. As a result fewer people are selling their homes when they emigrate.

At the same time more enquiries are being received, especially from professional young people who are uncertain about their future overseas.

Such transactions are increasing, primarily in the middle segment of the market and up to R2m, and mostly in Gauteng. Although many of the buyers do not yet have firm plans to return, they are creating a South African base for themselves in case they should lose their jobs and have to return, he explains.

The fact that South African property prices are falling also plays a role, offering better buying opportunities than a couple of years ago.

- Sake24.com

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