Make the most of recession talk

Industry experts are warning potential property investors to purchase property for sale in Germiston and elsewhere in South Africa, before the opportunity slips away.

There is plenty of negative sentiment to go around right now, and the talk of a technical recession has just been the cherry on top. However, Berry Everitt, who is the CEO of Chas Everitt International Property Group, says that the statistics need to be analysed properly.

In September, Statistics South Africa revealed that the country was in a technical recession after two consecutive quarters of negative growth, but Everitt says that when looking at the numbers properly, you could see that the economy was heading in the right direction.

Due to this factor, he says that investors should be making the most of the current buyer’s market by dismissing all of the negative talk and securing properties at lower rates while they are still available.

“In property as in any other economic sector, following the crowd is a bad idea, because by the time general sentiment turns positive, prices will usually already be moving upwards quite rapidly and much of the opportunity to maximise gains will be lost,” he said.

Everitt also discussed the fact that he feels a turnaround in the market is closer than expected, and that in just a few months there could be growth in property prices. He backs this up by saying that the 0.7% decline, as opposed to a 2.6% decline in the GDP in the first quarter, is proof that there is economic improvement in the country. And this despite the impact of the VAT increase and surging fuel prices.

With foreign investments secured by President Ramphosa expected to start flowing into the country, as well as the fact that there was growth across the financial, real estate and business sectors in the second quarter, means that the time to strike could be now.