You may have your swimming trunks on and be standing on the shores of the property market, but uncertain as to whether or not you should take a dip – however, there have been recent signs, whether you are selling or looking at property for sale, that a swim might not be a bad idea.
This comes on the back of confirmation from Rudi Botha, the CEO of BetterBond, who has explained the increased optimism in the property market in the first few months of 2018. This positive outlook has meant that banks are more prone to approving loans, which in turn has led to house prices moving up.
This has been judged by looking at the year on year increases. In April of this year, there was a whopping 5% increase of house prices when looking at the same period in 2017. However, this was not the only month where this happened, in fact, the first three months of the year were all up by around 3% year on year.
For sellers, this is incredible news as it shows that the market is slowly turning in their favour once again, and that was backed up by the results of an estate agent survey from FNB. Houses up for sale were spending an average of 17 weeks on the market, but that has shrunk to just 14 weeks now, while there were also fewer sellers who had to reduce their prices to push through the sale.
This change has been brought about not only by the fact that banks are more willing to approve home loan applications, but also because there has been a greater demand.
Botha noticed this change in their statistics over the last four months too, with a sustained approval rate of 80%, which was their highest since the recession in the late 2000s.
Despite the positives, he also said that this is not necessarily the case for all parts of the country, with some areas still experiencing change on a monthly basis. However, the increased prices can certainly assist in building even more confidence with the banks, and backs up many claims that positive things are on the horizon in the property market in South Africa.
