“However, the good news is that average price levels countrywide have risen 1.3% for the quarter, which equates to an annualised 5.2% per annum increase in average home prices. The average home sold and transferred is now R1 188 243,” says Berkowitz.
This is according to estate agency HomeBid, whose advisor and property economist Neville Berkowitz says they tracked 71 101 transfers in the various deeds offices around South Africa for the third quarter of this year. The second quarter reflected 76 546 transfers.
“However, the good news is that average price levels countrywide have risen 1.3% for the quarter, which equates to an annualised 5.2% per annum increase in average home prices. The average home sold and transferred is now R1 188 243,” says Berkowitz.
HomeBid’s research reveals that 87% of all homes sold and transferred in the third quarter are through the four major deeds offices of Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town and Pietermaritzburg, the latter being mainly greater Durban regional sales.
Increasing urbanisation will intensify this concentration of sales in the years to come, he says. Suburbs covered by the Johannesburg deeds office were the most active in terms of sales volumes with an increase of 4.7% in the third quarter of 2015 compared to the previous quarter. The Pretoria deeds office, which incorporates the northern suburbs of Johannesburg and Midrand as well the Pretoria region, saw a 2% increase in sales activity.
The Cape Town deeds office, which also includes parts of the Eastern Cape as well as the greater Cape Town region, showed a small fall off in sales activity of -1% while the Pietermaritzburg deeds office, reflecting the greater Durban region as well, saw a sizeable fall off in sales and transfers of homes of -9.9%. The sectional title marketplace fared far worse than the freehold title market in the third quarter compared to the second quarter of the year. Sectional title sales and transfers were -14.9% lower while freehold title sales and transfers dropped -3.7 %.
The slowing economy is taking its toll at the employee level where second quarter 2015 labour statistics are showing net layoffs in manufacturing, transport, business services and construction, according to StatsSA. “These employees are typically buying in the R250 000 to R2 million sectional title marketplace, where affordability is already under pressure and a further interest rate increase is expected in November 2015,” says Berkowitz.
The slowing economy is yet to be felt meaningfully in the luxury and super luxury segments. For example, the R4 million to R5million price level saw a massive jump of 68% in Johannesburg deeds office sales and transfers and 38% in the Johannesburg R10 million plus segment during the third quarter compared to the previous quarter. “Intuitively we believe that these luxury and super luxury homes will soon also reflect a slowing sales pattern during the fourth quarter and through 2016 as belt tightening ensue. However, those wealthy people who have taken their profits prior to the fall in the JSE prices from May 2015 will be hard pressed to invest them and with interest rates still relatively unattractive to serious investors, the luxury housing market may be the beneficiaries of some of these monies.
Conversely, wealthy people suffering from a fall in their JSE portfolios may be forced to sell their homes to pay off any borrowings they used to buy JSE stocks in the prolonged upswing since the late 2000s. There is a meaningful supply of new homes being developed for the luxury and super luxury segments in the four major metropolitan areas of Johannesburg/Sandton, Midrand/Pretoria, Durban/ Notth Coast and the greater Cape Town region.
“With the new developments coming on stream, I am concerned that if the current slowdown in sales in the general marketplace envelops the luxury and super luxury segments, then, as Warren Buffet aptly says, ‘You only see who is swimming naked when the tide goes out!’” says Berkowitz