Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa May/ June 2020 | Page 26

SELLING
The perfect storm
is brewing
Sellers, be ready to capitalise on pent-up
demand post Lockdown
T
here is a lot of uncertainty around how various sectors
of the economy will perform once we fully emerge
from the national lockdown and return to business
as unusual. One sector of the economy that stands to be
greatly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic is the housing
market. While interest in the property market has been
stimulated through interest rate cuts, affordability remains
a key concern for buyers and sellers alike.

“There is no doubt that the post-Covid-19 Lockdown
recession will weigh on the property market, but rather than
impacting negatively, we believe that the emergence phase
will be characterised by pent-up demand in the primary
residential market,” says chairman of the Seeff Property Group,
Samuel Seeff.

While we face an unprecedented time, we do expect
to emerge from the lockdown with a “perfect storm” for
homebuyers who are eagerly waiting to take advantage of
market conditions, especially in the sub-R1.5m (up to R3m in
some areas) sector, he says.
CEO of RE/MAX SA, Adrian Goslett says: “In a recent
meeting with our digital advertising partners, it was pointed
out to us that the interest rate cuts have stimulated interest
among buyers, as revealed by an increase in ‘buy a home’
search terms during this period.”
A confluence of events has created a rare window of
opportunity not seen for over a decade and purchasing
conditions could hardly be more favourable. Transfer duty is
down across the board and we believe that the favourable
lending climate will continue as banks will compete for
business.

The March interest rate cut of 1% means that buyers can
save between about R650 to R1300 per month on home loans
of R1m to R2m. Combined with the flat price growth, this
means that buyers can get into a property or suburb which
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MAY/JUNE 2020 SA Real Estate Investor Magazine
they might not have been able to afford a year ago.

Stock levels are higher than what they have been for some
time and after an exhaustive wait, sellers are keen to sell which
means that buyers will be able to negotiate further discounts.

“Naturally prices will come under pressure, especially at the
upper end of the market where we anticipate that buyers will
remain in the holding pattern that we have seen over the last
18 months. This, even though buyers can negotiate strongly
in this sector of the market, up to 20% and more off the asking
prices,” says Seeff.
“A flood of homes to the market will lead to downward
pressure on asking prices. Eventually prices will drop to a point
where buyers are incentivized to purchase again, which could
lead to the market rectifying itself through a possible housing
boom later down the line,” Goslett explains.
The depreciation of the Rand should be a favourable boost
for foreign buyers as they can get substantially more value
for their US Dollar or British Pound given that a property of
R12.5m could now cost around R9m.
“However, further, it is not likely to result in a flood of
buyers. The economic fall-out of Covid-19 along with a decline
in demand for second/holiday homes internationally means
that we are unlikely to see any notable uptick in sales above
R20m or foreign sales for the foreseeable future.”

Overall, the property market will remain a bellwether for
the challenges in the country and will reflect the broader
macro-economic trends, but ultimately people always need
somewhere to live. Those who want to buy, will do so and will
have plenty of motivation to do so.
SOURCES Seeff Property Group, RE/MAX SA
SELLING
Surviving
the property
pandemic
How real estate agents are
using tech to line-up sales
T
he lockdown has placed immense pressure on the
real estate industry to innovate and find new ways
to sell homes without meeting face-to-face. Though
challenging, real estate agents are still finding digital ways
to line up deals from home that can be finalised when the
lockdown is lifted. 
Bryan Biehler, Managing Director and co-owner of
Huizemark,and Director of the recently formed REBOSA
council says “Everything is going to change, and in ways we
don’t even know yet.”
PropTech platforms
While successfully completing a sale via purely digital means
may be occasional and rare, agents are still able to use
technology to build relationships with clients and line-up
potential buyers who might make an offer after seeing the
home once lockdown is lifted.
Regional Director and CEO of RE/MAX of Southern Africa,
Adrian Goslett says: “The agreement with Zoom makes it
possible for us to provide an enhanced version of their off-the-
shelf products to all our agents so that they can freely engage
with as many of their clients for as long as they need via this
video teleconference platform.”
Virtual Viewings
Biehler believes that an area in which estate agents will
see big changes in will be Showdays, as citizens continue
practising social distancing, and that a property viewing will
no longer fulfil a ‘viewing’ purpose, but rather an opportunity
to inspect a property, after considerable digital engagement
has taken place.
Goslett says: “We have found that our agents are using
all sorts of innovative ways to try and show homes virtually.
There have been a few success stories over this time, with a
few sales that will go ahead once the Deeds Office reopens
thanks to virtual show homes and other forms of digital
advertising. But, having said that, this use of technology
has been very much the exception rather than the norm. It
certainly does help to showcase a home and garner interest,
but most buyers want to experience a home with all their
senses rather than just having a visual experience of the home
before they make such a big financial commitment.”
Upskilling
Biehler foresees an increase in the pressure on agents to up-
skill and on real estate agencies to provide relevant, remotely
accessible training that takes cognisance of the changes in the
Real Estate Arena.
“Estate agents will need to up their game as far as their
skillset is concerned and will need to be prudent with how
they evaluate the properties they’re trying to sell.” The more
mature Estate Agents will need to become more digitally
savvy to be able to offer their clients the kind of service they
come to expect. The industry as a whole will have to get used
to learning new skills on an ongoing basis or face becoming
redundant. He goes as far as to say that the manner in which
Agents deal with the lockdown and the knock-on effect
thereafter, may well define their success in the future so it may
be an idea to consider courses or programs that can provide
these skills.
Goslette concludes: “Since our agents will be house-bound
during this lockdown, we’ve released a plethora of online-
based training courses, webinars and conference calls so
that our agents have the opportunity to upskill and refresh
over this time. We have also opened up our internal training
platform to the public so that anyone who wants to explore
the RE/MAX offering may freely do so.”
SOURCES RE/MAX, Huizemark, Rebosa
SA Real Estate Investor Magazine MAY/JUNE 2020
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