The latest property news out of South Africa is a mixed bag, with some positives but still many uncertainties for the year to come. South Africa’s First National Bank (FNB) Residential Property Barometer indicates that there was a positive shift in the fourth quarter of 2008, but the long term prospects are still unclear.
The Property Barometer is a survey of real estate agents in the major cities of the country regarding their experience with the market. The main question in the survey is in regard to demand activity, with agents rating their experience from 1 to 10. The latest Barometer inched up from 4.1 to 4.6. While that is still a low number, it is an improvement. Other parts of the survey include time on the market, selling price, the percentage of buy-to-let buyers and first-time buyers.
“Seasonality may have played a role in the slight increase in Q4 2008 activity level. However, some of the headline trends where seasonality doesn’t play as much of a role also showed a quarterly improvement,” said John Loos, property strategist at FNB Home Loans.
Time on the market has dropped from 20 weeks and 1 day in the third quarter to 15 weeks and 3 days in the fourth quarter. Also, first time buyers made up an estimated 17 percent of the market in the fourth quarter, up from 12 percent.
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