If you’re considering selling your home, now is a good time to do it. The combination of record low interest rates, and a surge in buyers looking to buy new homes since the end of the hard lockdown, means the local property market is ‘extremely attractive’ for sellers, says residential property experts Leadhome.
Leadhome CEO Marcél du Toit says the latest interest rate cut was ‘fantastic news’ for South African consumers and would boost the property market even further. Leadhome’s data shows a whopping 46% increase in buyer activity since level 5 of lockdown ended, and 45% over the same period in 2019. “Low-interest rates bring down the costs to obtain a home loan and create a higher demand for real estate,” said Du Toit.
One of the key indicators to assess the attractiveness of selling your property at any given time is the ratio of buyer enquiries received against the number of properties marketed, measured over a rolling seven-day period. The higher the ratio, the more buyer interest there is, which indicates a better time to put your property on the market; a lower ratio means the opposite. Since the hard lockdown ended on 1 June, buyer interest has skyrocketed, averaging 90% buyer enquiries to marketed properties ratio, compared to a 62% average in 2019. At the same time, Leadhome’s data shows buyers paying an average 96.7% of sellers’ asking price since 1 June, compared to the 2019 average of 96.4%.
To make the market even more attractive, bond originators Bondspark say there is an emerging trend of banks being ‘slightly more bullish’ in offering more attractive home loan packages. What does this mean? “For sellers, it’s a great time to put your property on the market. And if you’re considering buying a property, know that you need to bring your A-game! There is a lot of interest in, and competition for, properties, which means that you’ll need to be prepared to pay fair value for that house of your dreams,” said Du Toit.
