The Springs residential property market is alive.
This says Henlo Meyer, a Springs property developer and owner of an estate agency.
He says Springs is the place where many people prefer to buy their homes.
“People always moved out of Springs, but currently there are many preferring to stay here, simply because the cost of living is much lower here than in the rest of Gauteng,” Henlo says.
He also saw the lower cost of living is seeing young people buying their homes here to settle in Springs.
He says there is also a new tendency to renovate houses of 30 and 40 years old into modern dwellings.
The “playing field” of house prices here is also quite big because Springs has properties available from R400 000 to R5.5 million.
“We went through a time of drought, where no-one developed in Springs since 2008 and suddenly we have a shortage of new developed properties.”
He says within this “drought” there was still a 8% to 10% growth in the residential property market the past few years.
Izan Dippenaar, an estate agent, confirms that since the middle of 2014, there is movement in the property market.
He says the houses in Springs are at least 30% cheaper than in other cities and towns in Ekurhuleni and that the the houses in the R500 000 to R600 000 price bracket are the most in demand.
The suburbs in biggest demand are Petersfield, Selcourt and Selection Park.
He says he found that people will rather buy a home close to the schools and freeways and commute to their workplace.
Izan confirmed what Henlo says about young people preferring to stay in Springs, saying he also found that there is an increase in first time home-buyers between the ages of 25 and 35.
Johan Roos, a local property valuer, says the home prices in Springs are realistic and confirmed that it is cheaper to live in Springs than in the rest of Ekurhuleni.
He says buying here is value for money because compared to two to four years ago many of the house prices remained the same.
Johan says people are buying in Springs where they can afford their houses.
People are buying properties in Petersfield because it is close to the Afrikaans schools and in Selcourt and Selection Park people are close to the English schools.
He says there are not a lot of places to rent in Springs.
In the question of whether to buy or rent, Joahn advises people to buy – if you can afford it.
“Property is still a good investment,” he says.
Another reason to invest in your own property is that there is always a movement in the residential property market, because there are always people either upgrading or down scaling their houses.
