Following a sharp drop in residential property unit sales in South Africa in 2020, total unit sales rebounded strongly to 318,152 in 2021, according to Lightstone statistics. This represented a 21.4% increase from 2020 and a 3.0% increase on pre-Covid sales in 2019.
“Perhaps of particular interest are those regions or areas of the property market which appear to have experienced a ‘post-hard lockdown’ boom,” said Dr Andrew Golding, chief executive of the Pam Golding Property group.
He said that the shift in home buyers to coastal towns and villages is evident in the marked increase in the sales of coastal properties in 2021, with the percentage rising from 15% of all sales in 2020 to 18% in 2021. Pam Golding said that the first wave of semigration to the Western Cape is evident from late-2013 to late-2016 and again since 2020 – in the wake of the pandemic, the unrest during 2021, and the growing concern around the ability of municipalities to deliver services.
“This could be attributable to the increased demand from first-time homebuyers in response to the slashing of interest rates in early-2020, as well as the realisation that living in city centres in mixed-use developments remains attractive – despite initial expectations that the pandemic and repeated lockdowns made sectional title living unappealing.”
“In the >R3 million price band, freehold homes remain the largest type of home sold, with the declining gradual trend reversing in the wake of Covid. Estate sales have been rising steadily for some time but accelerated once the pandemic struck. These trends are most likely due to the desire for increased living and open space, as well as limited access to external factors.
While the pandemic prompted a sharp rise in the percentage of homeowners selling because of financial pressure, this has eased off from a peak of 23% in Q3 2020 to 20% in Q4 2021, according to the FNB Estate Agent Survey.
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