The property market in Cape Town's Grassy Park has livened up and is in every way now a high demand area.
A street view of a four bedroom home situated in the most sought-after part of Grassy Park. The home has a lounge, open-plan dining room, fully fitted kitchen, two bathrooms, TV and entertainment area as well as garaging for five cars. It is on the market for R1.149 million.
This is according to Lorenzo Jardine of the Rawson Property Group Grassy Park/Retreat franchise, who says had record sales in September, October and November and in November the record was reached before the 15th of the month.
He says their turnover is at least 60 percent up year on year and is set for further rises.
"The centrality of our suburbs, our closeness to the CBD (30 minutes away by railway line and by car out of rush hour) and the affordability of our homes have made this one of the most sought after residential nodes in the entire Cape Peninsula.”
Jardine says the big demand right now, is for homes in the R600 000 to R900 000 bracket, preferably in Retreat or Grassy Park. However, he says, as his area of operation covers Lotus River, Ottery, Steenberg, Lakeview, Seawinds (a division of Retreat), Wetton and Zeekoevlei, his and other local franchises can, in fact, offer sectional title homes priced from R200 000 to R500 000 and freehold units from around R200 000 to R3 million.
This home offers open-plan dining/living room, a fully fitted kitchen, two bathrooms and a teen pad, which has a bedroom with an en suite. It is on the market for R1.65 million.
He says one of the most attractive homes he has recently sold was a R2 million, five bedroom, double storey home on the water at Zeekoevlei. This franchise has other homes in Grassy Park priced from R1.2 million to R1.65 million, which will prove to be excellent buys because already price escalations are just as evident in the higher bracket homes as in the more affordable ones.
“Throughout our area, but particularly in Retreat and Grassy Park, stock shortages are now being experienced, and we are having to advertise, distribute pamphlets and telecanvass on an ongoing basis to keep stock levels at around 20, which is half of what they were at two years ago.”
Asked what conclusions potential buyers should come to in the light of these facts, Jardine says, “the answer is quite simple: if you do not buy now, you will pay far more in the future. At this stage, with interest still so low, I can see no reason why prices should not continue to rise steadily”.
Another good reason for buying now, he says, is that the banks are showing a friendlier attitude to bond applicants, only one in five of whom from this area is now rejected. "Amazingly, this includes significant numbers who applied for 100 percent and 108 percent bonds, those bonds which include all transfer and registration costs."
Jardine says on the rental front, demand is now even stronger than in the sales market. His franchise manages 45 rental units and whenever a new unit comes on the market it is signed for within a week. Furthermore, rentals are rising by some 10 percent per annum and are currently priced from R2 200 to R5 500 per month, with the big demand being around R3 500.
“This, of course, makes Grassy Park, like so many other Cape Peninsula suburbs, another great buy-to-rent area, a fact which investors are becoming increasingly aware of,” says Jardine.
