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Johannesburg - The number of houses under pressure being sold on auction has significantly tailed off in the third quarter of this year.
From the Alliance Group's latest figures it appears that distressed sales are 40% down since reaching a peak of more than 1 000 in February.
This decline is largely thanks to lower interest rates and banks' supporting clients with bonds in arrears, reckons Alliance chief executive Rael Levitt.
He says the group will nevertheless put 1 000 houses under the hammer in October.
This is because of the 622 West Rand houses from liquidated Gauteng developer Philken Construction that will be disposed of in a mass auction.
Levitt notes that, compared with overseas, distressed sales of houses represent a small proportion of the overall property market in South Africa.
Levitt recently returned from the United States where he had discussions with several auctioneers.
"We believe that in South Africa it represents a meagre 3% of all sales, but in the US almost a third."
Distressed sales in South Africa are more prevalent in certain areas than in others - such as on the West Rand.
This area has been one of the fastest-growing residential areas over the past 10 years.
He says there have been 10 000 to 12 000 distressed sales countrywide over the past 12 months.
- Sake24.com
For more business news in Afrikaans, go to Sake24.com.