GARDEN ROUTE 2024 IN REVIEW

Keageoz Property Solutions: Garden Route Real Estate Market Insights (2024)

Introduction

Welcome to our brief review of the real estate market across four key towns along the Garden Route: George, Mossel Bay, Plettenberg Bay, and Sedgefield. This report highlights market performance trends over 2022, 2023, and 2024.

We note sales volumes (both value and quantity), ownership trends, buyer demographics, and financing patterns.

We also analyze market activity, sentiment, and appetite, providing a summized view of each town's property landscape.

Sales Volume Trends (2022 - 2024)

• George shows a steady increase in both sales volume and quantity.
• Mossel Bay maintains consistent performance with a 20% increase in sales volume.
• Plettenberg Bay experienced stability in total sales value, though with slight variations in sale quantities.
• Sedgefield presented a slight decrease in turnover and volume of sales.

Market Activity and Ownership Periods

• George: 62% of current owners have held properties for over 11 years, indicating a stable, mature market.
• Mossel Bay: 55% of owners exceed 11 years of ownership, while 65% of recent sellers held properties for less than five years, showing a dynamic transactional pattern.
• Plettenberg Bay: Ownership periods reflect balance, with 51% of owners holding for more than 11 years.
• Sedgefield: 58% of Owners in this area retain or have owned their assets longer than 8 years.

Buyer Age Demographics

• George: Dominated by pensioners (48%) and mature owners (24%).
• Mossel Bay: Strong presence of pensioners (52%) and younger buyers at 22%.
• Plettenberg Bay: A mixed demographic, with 30% youth/adult buyers and 51% pensioners.
• Sedgefield: 73% of Buyers in this market is represented by age groups older than 50 years of age. Read this again...

Cash vs. Financed Purchases (2024)

• George: A significant proportion of transactions are financed. Analysis shows a mix of financing options with growing mortgage reliance and featured surprisingly, mortgages representing 50.27% of turnover.
• Mossel Bay: High-value freehold properties indicate robust financing activity with 40.44% of turnover paid by way of mortgage finance.
• Plettenberg Bay: Premium properties dominate, with significant cash buyer activity in luxury estates and merely 28.86% of acquisitions value contributed by way of bank loans.
• Sedgefield: As expected, reference to the dominant age groups here, only 26.34% of the turnover value was provided by way of mortgage finance.

Market Sentiment and Sales-to-Asset Ratios

The volume of annual sales as a percentage of available assets provides insights into market vibrancy:

• George: Approximately 4.42% of stock turnover annually thus every 23^rd  house is sold every year.
• Mossel Bay: Similar at around 5.94%.thus every 17 ^th house will be sold every year.
• Plettenberg Bay: Lower turnover, reflecting higher-value assets and luxury sector positioning with merely 4.34% of volume being sold annually, thus every 23^rd  house is sold every year.
• Sedgefield: Features an active 5.53% of it's quota being sold every year thus every 18^th house sells every year.

If you look at your Town's quota and the number of houses sold annually, our markets are quite active.

Conclusion and Outlook for 2025

George and Mossel Bay demonstrate strong, consistent activity with balanced financing. Plettenberg Bay remains a luxury hotspot with cash buyers, while Sedgefield's data signifies a purely retirement driven community with little corporate activity and few economically active individuals.

Market conditions suggest steady demand, with opportunities in both primary and holiday home sectors.

The National average time on market for an asset in the current climate is down to 11 weeks and 2 days as determined by FNB's property barometer.  Garden Route real estate, the pricing thereof and the resultant time on market are influenced by a number of factors. 

Our portfolio is active within the sales and rental market segments with high demand dictating still that positive growth for the foreseeable future will remain therefore encouraging investment in the Garden Route with the promise of prominent positive capital growth.

New development activity in this region however is slowing down significantly as available well priced land has quickly become a scarce resource whilst the pricing thereof forces consideration to existing lower priced options.

Speak to an active and informed property professional within our portfolio. Appropriate investment decisions can be made if information relevant to the current market in your area is provided.

Call on KPS Garden Route for an obligation free assessment of your current portfolio, management of your portfolio or assistance with your property finance requirements. Further market insight shall be provided upon discussion.

We look forward to furthering your real estate success along the Garden Route!