What Happened To The Property Market in 2019

What happened in the property market this year? 

It has certainly been a tough year for most South Africans, with a great deal of change, speculation and uncertainty. As you all know, our economic climate extends to, and influences, the property market but it's not all doom and gloom. There are some segments that have managed to successfully navigate the tough climate and where there is hardship there is always opportunity. 

To date 261 097 properties have sold, totalling to an amount of R210 billion. Comparing this with transactions last year we saw 315 899 properties transacted at an amount of R243 billion. Even though the number of sales has decreased there are still a few weeks left in the year for the transactions amount to increase slightly.

Gauteng is the top province when it came to property transactions with 102 354 sales, valued at R88 billion, this is followed by Western Cape with nearly half the amount of properties sold, 58 781. These transactions total an amount of R64 billion. 

If we explore house price inflation for 2019, the annual national inflation is currently at 2.9%. Western Cape have seen a recent slowdown, after a long streak of unrivalled outlying performance, giving the top inflationary growth spot to the province of Limpopo, with an annual inflation figure of 5.9%. 

The Western Cape has been, and still is, the best destination for semigrants but the sentiments are slowly changing as indicated by the slowdown of its property market. This market is hugely dominated by the City of Cape Town municipality, which over and above the price correction, has taken a knock from rising crime stats, the recent water crisis, local government uncertainties and looming competition along the east coast.

Limpopo province on the other hand has seen an increased demand for high-end properties most of which have become second homes to wealthy Gauteng residents. There is also a considerable amount of mining activity in the province driving up the demand to house workers, and several new developments are meeting this demand.

Our inland municipalities Ekurhuleni, City of Tshwane and City of Johannesburg metros are growing at stable rates between 1% and 4%, whereas the coastal municipalities are generally performing above this range. This relationship extends to all coastal and inland properties. The Low and Mid value wealth segments continue to buck the trend by growing at more than 4% annually with the rest inflating at rates below that.

The beginning of next year promises to be an exciting time in Lightstone's journey. We will be launching a number of exciting new features and services. Here is a bit of insight into some of the features that will be coming your way. 

Credit Card Payments 

You will shortly be able to purchase Lightstone reports using a credit card. 

You won't have to wait any longer for access or approval to purchase value adding reports, for example EzContact. Credit card payments will allow you to easily purchase reports as and when you need them. You will even be able to purchase contact information using your mobile phone.

You will easily be able to see and access the full product suit of reports and information that we offer, and can then make use of these to increase sales and prospects.  

Our analytics team have been actively working to formulate an automated valuation model that is designed specifically for you! EVM will most certainly help with determining the right price for a property, and it can be used to guide you through those tough price councelling discussions. With a version of EVM being used by most banks in South Africa, ensuring that you price a property according to the value the banks would grant for a home loan means you can shorten the lengthy process of transacting a property. 

We will let you know as soon as these new features and reports are available.