Not surprisingly, once everyone returns from their holidays and time outs and re-enters the workplace, a major question is -: what will this new year hold in terms of the property market? Many property practitioners will probably have been asked during the festive season for their opinion and, more importantly, what their prediction is for 2023. As always, and in truth, it’s very hard to predict in the first few weeks of January how the year will go since either best case or worst-case scenarios, and everything in-between, is still on the table. We can’t control lockdowns, riots, natural disasters, rising interest rates or energy issues, but we do know how the market has performed over the last several many years and, being in the industry day in and day out, we can get a “feel” of how things might go this year.
Personally, I believe there are many reasons to be positive for this year’s local market. What is particularly comforting, is how KZN has performed over the last 8 years. Looking at the last 8 years of property price inflation across all 9 provinces, KZN has had the most consistent and stable growth. We may not have had some of the highs that the other provinces have had, but we most certainly have not been anywhere near the lows. This kind of growth always gives the feeling and confidence that KZN should again follow with a consistent solid year, having proven during the last few years, to be more immune to the market fluctuations and challenges.
Taking a deeper dive into Ballito and its surrounds, I feel we have more reason to remain confident as coastal residential prices have been steadily inflating recently at more than double that of the inland markets. Additionally, the increase of more entry level homes in this area continues to increase at a rapid rate, which will further strengthen the market in a sector which is vital to propping up sales in the higher price ranges. Further to this, we at Local Real Estate experienced a busier than normal December and so far, albeit too early to call, a very active and busy start to sales and rentals in January. This is a good indicator of how the rest of the first 4 - 6 months will go.
On top of this I predict a busy and buoyant rental market, buoyed by more stock coming back from the investor market from the raft of new developments that have been coming on stream. If you line all this all up, and with everything we already know about why the North Coast is so desirable, I truly believe that the 2023 property market won’t disappoint.
Words: Graham White Managing Director, Local Real Estate