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Cape Town - The Glen Marais suburb in Johannesburg was the most searched suburb nationally on the website of RE/MAX over the period from January to March 2018.
This was followed by the Johannesburg suburbs of Morningside, Bryanston and Witpoortjie. The only Cape Town suburb in the Top 5 most searched suburbs on the RE/MAX site, was Parklands in fifth place.
According to the RE/MAX National Housing Report for the first quarter of 2018, 38.11% of homes sold during the first quarter of the year were in the price bracket of R400 000 and below. Only 3.75% of homes sold were sold for R3m or more.
According to the housing report, Lightstone data reveals that 21 783 freehold properties and 9 928 sectional title homes were sold countrywide during the first quarter.
The current national median price of a freehold home now sits at R1 034 840, with the national median price of a sectional title unit at R998 043.
The data shows that the national median price of freehold homes in SA has dropped by 7.8% and that of sectional units by 2% since the last quarter of 2017. The median price means half of homes sold were above this price and half below this price.
In the first quarter 31 875 new bonds were registered at the Deeds Office, while data from all the major banks reveal that the average bond amount granted during this period was R1.056m.
Of the 51 221 homes purchased between January and March, 14.69% were first-time registrations with the remaining 85.31% repeat sales.
Affordable housing
The report states that affordable housing continued to do well in the first quarter. Houses priced at R400 000 and below made up the largest percentage of properties sold as usual.
"It seems consumers have been playing it safe during the first quarter, while they await the results of all the recent changes made to SA's political and economic environment," commented Adrian Goslett, regional director and CEO of RE/MAX of Southern Africa.
“We believe that we will see some positive growth in the next quarter. A lot of the year’s earlier uncertainties have seen positive resolutions, and we predict that this will restore buyer confidence in the property sector.”
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