Seeff Rondebosch is "on fire" with five sales in February and the highest price over the last year

The Rondebosch market for freehold houses remains active and I have just concluded five sales for February which is the highest achieved by any agent in the area.

The sales have ranged from R3,425 million to R9 million being the highest price achieved over the last year as well. Additionally, I have already concluded two sales for March.

While not out of the woods given the impact of the lingering Covid Pandemic on the economy, the good news is that buyers continue to view Rondebosch as an ideal location offering convenience, proximity to UCT and access to many top class schools.

If we look at the market performance during the Pandemic, there was a notable uptick in sales after June last year following the emergence of the market from the hard lockdown period. A total of about 80 houses sold in the period Jan 2020 to end of February 2021 at an average price of R4,664,750.

By comparison, sales of freehold houses for the 2019-year amounted to 86 sales at an average price of R4,912,419. We can thus observe that the average selling price is down year-on-year by 5%, largely due to the slow in demand for high value properties and the pressure on prices.

In contrast, Charmaine's 17 sales during the 2020-year achieved an average selling price of R4,861,471 which is just 1% below the average selling price of 2019. Overall, the sales made by Charmaine achieved on average 89% of seller's asking prices with two sellers achieving within 2.5% and 4% of their asking price.

The weak price growth shown across the Rondebosch market is in keeping with the latest FNB House Price Index which shows that positive growth is only taking place in the price bands below R1.2 million. Prices above the R3 million mark have shown a decline for 2020 versus 2019 of 5.5% on average. Rondebosch performed slightly better with only a 5% y/y price decline.

An important inference is that while the market remains active, sellers need to continue pricing competitively to attract buyers. This is well reflected in the time that properties are taking to sell as well. Currently, properties are spending about 15 weeks and four days on the market. During 2019, however, the time on the market was just 11 weeks and 2 days.

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