W Cape property outperforms SA

The persistent belief that residential property values in the Western Cape are the highest and most stable in South Africa has once again been verified by the FNB Property Barometer which recorded 8.2 percent year-on-year growth in the western province’s house sales in the first quarter of this year.

This is, according to Lanice Steward, Managing Director of estate agency Anne Porter Knight Frank, significantly ahead of Gauteng’s 6.8 percent, the Eastern Cape’s 5.8 percent and KwaZulu-Natal’s 4.5 percent sales growth rate.

Also way ahead of other provinces is the Western Cape’s average house price, which according to the FNB survey in the first quarter of this year was R909 928.

Even more impressive, says Steward, are PropStats’ figures for the first quarter.

“Here,” says Steward, “it has to be borne in mind that PropStats’ figures are generated by participating agencies responding to PropStats’ enquiries and do not as yet represent the total.  The PropStats survey focuses on the southern suburbs of Cape Town, Hout Bay and the Atlantic Seaboard with a relatively small input from the northern suburbs. In the southern suburbs the 2011 average achieved house price for the first quarter of this year was R1.945-million against R1.898-million for the first quarter of 2011.

Steward has in several press statements said that the housing market began to show signs of a recovery early on this year and she has predicted that by the end of 2013 we will see greatly increased sales activity and unit prices that are possibly above inflation.

“Estate agents,” she says, “have their own means of gauging their markets and, as we have said several times previously, pockets in the Cape Peninsula have proved exceptionally resilient and resistant to price drops.  Now, however, it is quite clear that the whole of the Western Cape is outperforming the rest of South Africa — and certain agencies here, including Anne Porter Knight Frank, are now looking back on really excellent sales upswings in March, which in most cases are significantly up on those of the last quarter of 2011.”