Mid-Year Property Market Snapshot

Copy by Graham White Managing Director, Local Real Estate

It’s always hard to believe it when someone mentions that we are in the 2nd half of the year, but here we are, already less days to go until Christmas than from the start of the year. It’s a good time to take stock and see where we are in terms of how we are going comparatively year on year.

For regular readers I have generally been quite positive this year, and with good reason. More buyers have been putting pen to paper again, and the general “feel” regarding the property market has been net positive, but has this translated into conclusive property transactions? The simple answer to that so far is yes. Admittedly, I can only base this on my own office numbers, but hopefully this also extrapolates to what others are seeing.

Year on year for the first six months this year, compared to the first six months in 2023, in registered deals there has been in increase of 27% in total value and 32% in volume. Rentals cuts a spookily similar number, just inverted, with value up 32% and volume up 27%.
I spoke last month about the house price inflation decline starting to bottom out in KZN as a whole and indeed, although only slightly, with another month under the belt, the latest statistics show an uptick which is very positive. Looking a bit deeper, the KZN inflation numbers are pulled down somewhat due to the deflation that has been happening in the Municipality of eThekwini since the last quarter of 2023 so there is even more reason to be positive if we are only talking about the greater Ballito area.

Elections have now been and gone and the GNU has been formed. No one has a crystal ball, but the current make up has been seen as a positive by investors, especially compared to some of the coalition scenarios that could have come into play.
And finally, the national statistics have continued to show an increased inflation for the property market as a whole, as does the price band that 95% of all homes in the North coast fall into.

However, amongst all this positivity, if you are selling or thinking of selling, I still urge you to take heed of your agents’ advice. There are so many nuances and factors that are at play when pricing a home.

Even though the stats are looking better, the time properties remain on the market has been rising year on year for the last 4 years. Getting a professional market appraisal before taking the plunge seems to be more important now than ever.