WHAT'S UP AT THE TOP END OF THE PROPERTY MARKET?

Increased sales figures and website hits over the past six months, have the teams at Wakefields Real Estate optimistic about the upper end of the property market. Not only are sales looking positive, but the strong prices reached are good indicators of sellers being realistic, and buyers seeing value. At three phases of The Pearls, a total of seven units have sold, with prices from R3,9m, through R8,5m, right up to R22m. In the latest phase, Pearl Sky, a staggering 371 of the 420 units have reputedly been sold.

Myles Wakefield, CEO of Wakefields Real Estate, says their north coast branches have noted increased traffic to upper-end properties on the website, as well as a steady flow of enquiries: "A few days ago, we listed a property at R22m, and within no time at all, we'd had 11 viewings on the web. Last week, a property at R4 495m sold within two days of it being featured on the site."

Wakefield also commented that, "These upper-end properties which we’ve been given mandates to sell, fall across the entire spectrum of property types, from freestanding homes, to gated estates, to apartments. Thirteen properties - from R3m to R6m - have been sold in Mount Edgecombe Country Club Estates | and 11 over this period, but equally, numerous freestanding homes have generated great interest and subsequent sales in the prestigious roads of Burleigh, Berkeley and Stirling in Durban North."

Exclusively Kwazulu-Natal focussed and based, Wakefields Real Estate has a very strong presence in this stretch of the Kwazulu-Natal North Coast - five specialist branches and over 80 sales agents - so the increase of upper-end properties for sale on their books, website interest, and the corresponding sales of these, is a good indicator of the state of that sector of the market.