Atlantic Seaboard apartments selling like “hot cakes”, achieving up to R45m

Apartments across the Atlantic Seaboard and City Bowl are selling like “hot cakes” and selling for up to R45 million based on a recent sale by Seeff, says Ross Levin, managing director for Seeff in the area.

This particular sale was for the full asking price and the apartment sold before it was even listed. We continue seeing an influx of people looking for a better quality lifestyle with demand for apartments recovering well and well-priced units literally flying off the shelves

Apartments are sought not just for residential purposes, but are seeing a resurgence in demand as second homes driven by the Covid work-from-home trend. 

Seeff agents, Hilary Biccari and Jackie Clarke alone concluded nine deals recently achieving over R22 million in sales. The properties sold for 96% of asking prices. The agents say that working with experienced area agents and correct pricing remains vital in the current market.

The luxury end of the sectional title market is also doing well, says Levin. Seeff’s Waterfront team of Finella Botes and Kim Bailey sold the R45 million penthouse in Juliette on the canals to a buyer from Germany who intends spending six months of the year in SA in addition to several sales at the Waterfront.

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.

Adrian Mauerberger and Bryan Ginsburg, luxury sectional title agents for Seeff Atlantic Seaboard have also sold several apartments including a R16,5 million sale of a unit in The President in Bantry Bay.

For the market as a whole, the Atlantic Seaboard and City Bowl 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. The sector achieved around 680 units sold to the value of R2,56 billion.

It is though still trading still slightly below the 2019 levels and selling prices remain flat with little to no growth year-on-year, says Levin.

What is encouraging 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.

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.