Annual Sales Review: 2018

Helen Melon Properties: 2017/ 2018 Sales Comparison

The 2019 elections have come and gone and hopefully now we can start moving forward in our country again, and more hopefully, the residential property market will make a comeback after a couple of not-so-stellar years.

We all know the economy runs on confidence and in South Africa, we have not much to crow about in recent years. Don't get me wrong, and don't believe the naysayers who have been predicting SA's downfall for years. We are ok and we're going to be great. But we're not here to look forward but to recap, so you get a clear picture of the Plettenberg Bay region's property markets after the last two years.

We take a look at property sales for the years 2017 and 2018, highlighting the important bits and giving you the correct information, which will help you make a decision going forward. In this article we're going to also take a look at sectional title sales in the area as well as overall property transfers.

Let's start by taking an overarching view of overall sales in 2017 vs 2018. There were  577 property sales in the region in 2018 compared to 642 in 2017. That's an overall drop of just over 10%.

Breaking that down into the top performing suburbs it looks like this.

Volume of sales by suburbs

What stands out?
 

Keurboomstrand remains the top-ranking suburb with 93 property sales in 2018. Of the 93 sales, 60 properties (65%)  were below R2 million.

Plettenberg Bay moved up one spot from 3rd to 4^th place with 65 properties sold in 2017 and 70 in 2018. Of the 70 properties sold in 2018, 56 (80%) were below the 2M mark.

Sales in Seaside Longships decreased by 29% which was the largest decrease in the top five selling suburbs.

Whale Rock remains in second place despite a decrease in property sales of 12%. (85 properties sold in 2017 compared to 75 in 2018).

Farms/ Smallholdings / Rural Areas
There was  continued interest for farms and small holdings in the region. Despite a fall of 40% in sales this category still ranked 6^th in volume of property sales for 2018. (45 properties sold in 2017 compared to 27 in 2018).

Out of interest Robberg Ridge experienced the largest decrease in sales of all suburbs during 2018 with sales dropping a whopping 50%. (18 properties sold in 2017 and only 9 properties sold in 2018).

Property Sales by Price

• Only two price brackets showed an increase in volume of sales in 2018;  namely, the R2-3M and R10-15M.
• Sales in the R2-3M  price bracket increased by 24% with 97 sales in 2018 compared to 78 in 2017. (This could be due to a lack of stock in Plettenberg Bay, where there appears to be a bracket creep for entry level homes).
• Other noteworthy changes are the 28% drop in sales in the R5M-R7M bracket (29 in 2017 and 21 in 2018).
• Sales under R1M also dropped significantly, by 24% from 246 in 2017 to 186 in 2018 (Again this could be attributed to lack of stock).

R5 - R10m price range:

Of the 34 properties sold in this bracket in 2018, 13 were in Lifestyle Estates; six were in Seaside Longships and three were farms/rural properties.

Sales above 10 million

• In 2018, of the 16 properties sold above R10m, only four were in lifestyle estates. Other properties sold were in prominent and prestigious areas such as Beachy Head Drive, Cutty Sark and Oldland Street. There was also a sale of a hotel in the town centre and a timber farm (677ha).
• Also important to note is that the lower price brackets which normally make up 70% of sales decreased from 74% in 2015 to 69% in 2016 and matching 69% in 2017. In 2018 it has decreased further to 65% indicating a possible bracket shift in the lower end of the market.

Sectional tile sales: 2017 vs 2018

In 2017 there were 209 sectional title sales in the region compared to 231 in 2018. The majority of these sales took place in the R1-R2 million category (99 in 2017 and 118 in 2018).

• Sectional title sales accounted for 40% of all property sales in 2018 compared to 33% in 2017.
• Keurboomstrand was the top ranking suburb for volume of sectional title sales with an increase of 30%. 60 Units sold in 2018 compared to 42 in 2017.
• Of the 93 properties sold in Keurboomstrand, 60 of 93 were sectional title units
• The average price for a sectional title unit in Keurboomstand is R1 705 531.88.
• There were 59 sales in Plettenberg Bay in 2018 compared to 54 in 2017.
• There were 63 sales below R1M in 2018 compared to 83 in 2017

That's a brief but fairly comprehensive look back at 2017 and 2018 property sales, if you want more information or to discuss your property requirements, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Yours in Property

Helen Ward

www.helenmelonproperties.co.za  

** Please note:
Suburbs under review in the 2017/2018 comparison