Emigration-Motivated Property Sales Down

The information in this article is courtesy of Business Day (Fewer emigrants selling their homes - 29 January 2009)

It seems that most South Africans has come to except the political changes in the country. This can be seen in the decline of people selling their homes to emigrate form a peak of 20% in the 3rd quarter of last year to 14% in the final quarter.

According to FNB Home Loans the number of foreign buyers in South Africa stands at a total of 6% - with the majority of these buyers being from Africa. This means that there has been a drop in the number of European and American buyers.

John Loos, property strategist at FNB Home Loan said that the high number of South Africans emigrating during the first half of 2008 can be explain by the negative sentiment following the change in leadership of the ANC, the Eskom power crises and the problems in Zimbabwe.

Loos added that the global economical crisis has also played a role in the fall of emigration-motivated property sales. South Africans are definitely thinking twice before moving to the UK, which are at the moment entering a recession. This might also mean that we could see the return of a large number of expatriates. The poor economical conditions might also explain the drop in the number of European and American buyers since they are now re-prioritising spending.

The property barometer also indicated that the number of investment properties sold below the seller’s original purchase price has risen from 12% during the third quarter of last year to 19% in the last quarter.

On a more positive note, the barometer also showed that the average time a property was on the market improved from 20 weeks and a day to 15 weeks and three days. The number of first-time buyers also improved from 12% to 17% and the buy-to-let market declined from 14% to 12 %.

According to the property barometer the reason for selling houses still remains downscaling due to financial pressure.

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