Property Talk

The new year has started with a surge of buying and rental enquiries along our Dolphin Coast with estate agents working hard to service this demand.

The first quarter of each year has typically been a season peak in buying and rental behavior as people plan their geographical migration around this time more than at other periods during the year.

The 2018 year proved to be a relatively tough year for the higher end of the market with the overall number of transactions and the value of those sales significantly down from the prior year, while the lower end of the market seemed to show a level of resilience in the face of extremely poor general economic fundamentals.

Everybody has to live somewhere and whether this is to buy or rent, this means that a level of market demand will prevail and have to be serviced.

The largest and most actively traded estate along the Dolphin Coast is Zimbali Coastal Resort. Now in its 23rd year it has matured as the premier residential destination and the price range reflects this.

What is very interesting is that the top end of the market was more affected last year than the lower priced estates in the face of extremely hard trading conditions with negative or near zero GDP growth, low disposable income and shattered business and consumer confidence. And yet even in these conditions a large number of transactions still take place.

For the 2018 year sales in Zimbali were recorded as R383,018,152 from 60 transactions. This reflected a -45,49% decline on the prior year which delivered 109 sales amounting to R702,617,100.

This is significant when you think that the difference in sales year-on-year amounted to R319,598,948. The average price for 2018 was R6,383,636 only marginally down from the average Zimbali 2017 price of R6,446,028.

Simbithi sales for 2018 were R374,234,804 across 99 transactions. This was down by 30,62% on 2017 which delivered R539,399,512 in gross sales from 140 transactions. The average price for Simbithi sales in 2018 was R3,780,150, down marginally on the R3,852,854 average recorded for 2017.

Between Zimbali and Simbithi 2018 delivered R484,763,656 fewer sales in 2018 than in 2017. That is significant and reflects the extraordinary buyers market that has prevailed over the past year.

As we move down the residential property price spectrum, taking Seaward Estates as a great example that had an average price transacted in 2018 of R2,606,625 being marginally higher than the 2017 average of R2,543,602.

The total gross sales in Seaward Estates for 2018 were R114,691,500 from 44 transactions. This was only -7,98% down from the R124,636,500 sales from 49 transactions recorded in 2017, showing an impressive resilience in this segment of the property market.

The difference between the decision making process in purchasing a primary residence versus a vacation or leisure property is to some extent reflected in the difference in overall demand between the Zimbali and Seaward sales figures. In tougher times primary residential markets tend to perform better than vacation home markets.