Context is important when considering the impact of increases in interest rates on people’s appetite for buying, he said.
He pointed to an emerging middle class, particularly in cities like Johannesburg and Pretoria, combined with a desire to leave a legacy that serves the property sales market well. In terms of areas, Stevens recommends focusing on coastal cities and towns. “These are the areas that have seen better performance from a property value perspective, and demand remains strong due to many people semigrating to the coast.”The smaller towns near Cape Town like Hermanus, Onrus and Kleinmond to the east, or Langebaan and St Helena up the west coast.
Property franchising is another investment opportunity for hard-working, dynamic and service-oriented entrepreneurs, he said.This past year South Africa has seen an average property price increase of 4.7%, the property expert said, citing Lightstone data. “Where SA property prices escalated disproportionately as a result of Covid lockdown restrictions and the lifestyle changes we saw in 2021, we do expect corrections.
He said that in 2022, affordable properties will still see good growth despite job insecurity, poor credit profiles and the increasing cost of living.The good news for landlords, said Stevens, is that there is now a smaller percentage of tenants in arrears than in the first quarter of 2020.
South Africa can jump start its economy if it does the following: 1-Remove the race based BBBEE laws! 2-Remove all labour law red tape! 3-Reduce Corporate Income Tax to 22%! (This will be lowered to 27% next year tho)