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Do you have R30 million lying around?

Good news – you can probably snap up a luxury property that was originally listed at around R50 million.

A new report by TimesLIVE calls the local property market “Carnage in Cape Town”, pointing out that property prices are being slashed across many of the city’s prime suburbs.

The Atlantic Seaboard? Tick. Upper Constantia? Tick.

We knew this already, and wrote about it back in June, but some of the more recent numbers are pretty staggering

In a statement yesterday, estate agent Seeff’s MD for the Atlantic Seaboard and City Bowl, Ross Levin, said some of their recent sales had been finalised at “anything between 20% and 50% below the asking prices”:

He added: “The market is already down by 40% since 2016/17, and despite the expected uptick following the election, the reality has been a further decline of 15% in value generated during the first half of this year. High-end sales remain especially slow.”

Seeff’s luxury market specialist, Lance Cohen, said he had several high-end listings where prices had been reduced by millions of rands.

Propstats data showed properties were taking 126 days to sell, on average, compared with 75 days in 2018.

Prices being achieved for Atlantic seaboard properties were 16.9% below asking prices, on average.

A house in Camps Bay that went on the market for R50m was sold for R25m, and Seeff said it knew of other discounts amounting to 20.5% on an R11.95m sale and 27.4% on a R9.5m sale.

One gets the feeling that the R50 million house that sold for R25 million was probably a second or third home (you just have to escape those European winters), but it’s still quite a thing to see.

These properties below, listed on Seeff, are worth a look:

Late film-maker Keith Rose’s 20-year labour of love, Blackwood Lodge in Hout Bay, has had its price cut by 25% to R29m. 

This six-bedroom Llandudno home has had its price reduced from R29.95m to R25.5m. 

A five-bedroom Fresnaye home has had its price cut from R65m to R57m. 

Oh, the horror.

It’s not just the Atlantic Seaboard and Constantia, Seeff added, with properties in Hout Bay seeing price differentials of up to 20%.

Basically, if you’re keen to dabble in some luxury property, this is one of the best buyers’ markets in decades.

Meanwhile, you can’t get anything entry-level close to the Cape Town CBD for less than R2 million, and the first-time buyers’ market remains an absolute minefield.

Good times.

[source:timeslive]