Well-priced apartments selling like "hot cakes" in Atlantic Seaboard and City Bowl suburbs

Apartments across the Atlantic Seaboard and City Bowl are selling like “hot cakes” if well-priced according to Ross Levin, managing director for Seeff in the area.

In the first three months of this year, Seeff agents, Hilary Biccari and Jackie Clarke alone concluded nine deals, five of which were sold in March, achieving over R22 million in sales with sellers achieving 96% of asking prices.

The agents say this demonstrates that where sellers work with experienced area agents and price in line with the current market, their properties will sell and achieve good prices relative to the rest of the market.

While the bulk of sectional title sales are below R4 million, Levin says that Seeff is seeing activity at the upper end of the luxury sectional title market as well.

Seeff’s Waterfront team of Finella Botes and Kim Bailey for example recently concluded a R45 million deal on a penthouse in Juliette on the Front Yacht Basin, sold to a buyer from Germany. Seeff had incidentally originally sold this apartment to the seller and it was sold before being listed.

This sale is the highest price achieved at the Waterfront since 2013 and the fourth highest price achieved on the Atlantic Seaboard over the last twelve months, say the agents.

Additionally Adrian Mauerberger and Bryan Ginsburg sold a unit at the end of March in The President in Bantry Bay for R16,5 million against an asking price of R17,9 million.

The Atlantic Seaboard and City Bowl sectional title market achieved about 680 unit sales worth R2,56 billion for the twelve months to the end of March 2021. While there are encouraging signs in the market, Levin says sales volumes are still below the 2019 levels and selling prices remain flat with little to no growth year-on-year.

What is encouraging though is that the sales are taking place to a broad spectrum of buyers, not just locals but foreign buyers as well as buyers from upcountry areas such as Gauteng, he says further. The sectional title market is diverse offering not just the opportunity to downscale for older buyers but is increasingly seen as an option for young professionals.

Aside from residential and retirement demand, the market is made up of a significant investment portion for both the residential and short-let market.

Although Sea Point and the CBD boast the highest number of sectional title sales, the market is active across the areas including the City Bowl, De Waterkant, Green Point, Sea Point, Mouille Point and Waterfront as well as the luxury suburbs of Bantry Bay, Camps Bay, Fresnaye and Clifton.

Levin says the Atlantic Seaboard and City Bowl remain among the most desirable places to live and the Covid Pandemic lifestyle shifts have not affected that. We are not seeing an exodus of people, far from it, he adds.

From a broader market perspective, sectional title living is the fastest growing property trend in SA as the cities transform to meet the demand for more housing but to also accommodate the shifts in lifestyle. According to Lightstone, sectional title sales for the country as a whole comprised around 27.7% (2019) of all sales compared to 22% in 2010.

Sectional Title sales over the last twelve months comprise almost 80% of all units sold on the Atlantic Seaboard and about 67% in the CBD/City Bowl area.

Levin says the current market presents the ideal opportunity for buyers to take advantage of the flat price growth and cheap borrowing costs to invest in this high-demand area which has seen significant capital appreciation during the economic growth periods.

Aside from the tourism demand which will return once the Covid Pandemic is history, the move of Western Province Rugby to the Cape Town Stadium for both domestic and international fixtures will further add to the demand in the area.

Photograph/s attached:
PROP1 - Bantry Bay - Seeff luxury sectional title agents, Adrian Mauerberger and Bryan Ginsburg recently sold a 3-bed apartment in The President, one of the most desired complexes on the Atlantic Seaboard for R16,25m in a cash deal to a buyer from the Eastern Cape.
https://www.seeff.com/results/residential/for-sale/cape-town/bantry-bay/flat/150505/

PROP2 - Waterfront – Seeff Waterfront agents, Finella Botes and Kim Bailey recently sold the penthouse in Juliette on the Front Yacht Basin in a cash deal to a buyer from Germany for R45m before the property was even listed.