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Cape Town - Sectional title sales along Cape Town's Atlantic Seaboard and its city bowl areas show significant turn up.
Activity in the sectional title sector of the Atlantic Seaboard, CBD and city bowl property market continues to strengthen significantly on the back of strong buyer demand for Cape Town’s sought-after cosmopolitan seaside lifestyle according to Ian Slot, Seeff's managing director for the areas.
"Moving from a position of an oversupply of properties for sale following the 2007/2008 down-turn and conditions overwhelmingly favouring buyers, we are now demonstrably in a sellers’ market," he said.
Sectional title properties now sell almost as fast as they are listed and for close to or full asking price and our agents report significant stock shortages across the board.
While residential buying remains the largest component of buyers, Slot said holiday home and investment buyers are now also making a return to the market.
The buoyant activity has also seen the average sales price of apartments in the various areas improve notably year-on-year in the central city and city bowl, although more modestly along the Atlantic Seaboard.
For the twelve-month period as at the end of July this year, about 1 075 sectional title properties worth just over R2.9bn have sold across the areas, according to Slot.
This is about 14% up in value terms on the R2.6bn (about 975 units) that sold during the preceding period.
Seeff’s sectional title sales for the period alone amount to almost R900m at an average price of just over R4.5m.
This includes several sales along the Atlantic Seaboard, most notably in Clifton ranging to R29m for a luxury apartment in Cliffrock, two sales at The Bantry (Bantry Bay) at R15m and R42.5m respectively, three sales above R20m at the V&A Waterfront, several sales in Fresnaye ranging to around R20.5m and in Camps Bay ranging from R10.8m in Medburn Road to R11.5m in Barley Bay and R13.5m in Barley Beach.
In general, sectional title properties in the central city now sell for about R1.5m on average, up by 17% from the 2012/13 average of R1.3m.
City Bowl units now sell for around R1.7m, 15% more than the R1.5m average of the previous period.
Along the Atlantic Seaboard, sectional title homes now sell for around R3.7m on average, about 6% more than the R3.5m during 2012/13.
The average sales price of apartments at the V&A Waterfront though have remained much the same as in the previous period and now sits at about R10.4m.
As can be gleaned, activity in the CBD and City Bowl in particular is booming, says Slot.
Until about early last year, there was a notable oversupply of apartments in the city, but most of these have now sold. In fact, the demand is now such, that there is once again room for further development, converting some of the older B and C grade buildings into mix use apartment blocks for example, he said.
Unit sales increased by almost 50% in value terms from just under R209m (156 sales) in 2012/13 to almost R313m (200 sales) over the last year.
Agents Warren Emett and Jason Paans say anything from small apartments priced around R700 000 to luxury units for up to R3m, not only in the central city, but also on the Foreshore and in De Waterkant, are in demand.
Aside from residential buyers, investors are now also buying with a view to capitalising on the strong demand for rental accommodation here.
Consequently, sellers are now getting close to or even achieving their full asking price, say Emett and Paans.
Sea Point agents, Hilary Biccari and Bianca Gutteridge note that, while residential buying is booming, buy-to-let investors have also made their return. For sellers, this is an excellent time to get good prices in the suburb.
Even in the luxury sectional title sector above R3.5m, demand is buoyant on the Atlantic Seaboard and stock is in short supply, according to agents Adrian Mauerberger and Rosa Karp.
Properties are selling almost within a month of listing and sellers are getting anything between 6.4% and 7.8% within their asking price as not only residential buyers, but investors compete to get their hands on the limited stock.
- Fin24
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