Camps Bay demand remains strong

CAPE Town’s Camps Bay, which boasts the trendiest beach promenade in SA with top restaurants, remains the most desired address in the mother city.

Seeff Atlantic Seaboard MD Ian Slot says Camps Bay has all the facilities that residents could want, including top schools and nearby private schools.

The suburb is close to the V&A Waterfront and top medical facilities as well as major arterials into and out of the city.

Mr Slot says properties in the R5m to R8m price band are the most in demand and there is a “definite” stock shortage of these with significant demand from young family buyers.

Mr Slot says both buyers and sellers have good reason to remain confident about the Camps Bay property market because the suburb has been the best performing area on the Atlantic Seaboard over the past two years.

“And this year is even better, its status as the jewel in the country’s coastal market is not misplaced.”

About 31 properties in the suburb have already been sold this year to the value of more than R251m, almost 50% of just more than R584m in sales recorded for all of last year.

Mr Slot says sellers have achieved an average year-on-year capital growth of 12,5% over an average six-year period compared to 11% for last year.

While the highest sale in the area last year was just over R18m, two homes sold this year were already around the R20m price mark — an Atholl Road villa and a home in Brook Street which sold for R25m. A further four homes also sold above the R10m price band compared to last year when the majority of properties sold for less than R10m.

The strength of the market is recounted by agents Pola and Nadine Jocum.

In 1979, the average price for a house in Camps Bay was just R33000, Pola Jocum says. “By 1997, I broke through the R4m barrier with a record R4,75m sale and sold the same property again in 2007 for R14m,” she says.

The Camps Bay team consists of two sub-teams: the Jocums and Rochelle Serman and Lyn Pope. Ms Serman and Ms Pope have just concluded their 14th sale of the quarter, including six sales in the past month.

The agents say they are having their best sales since 2008. “The market is definitely more energised, but still a tough one as there is still a gap between buyer and seller perceptions of current market value. Most sellers do not realise the average length of time to sell here over the past few years is 220 days, but where the marketing and pricing has been right up front, they have achieved sales within 10 days,” Ms Jocum says.

Camps Bay also holds the record for four out of five of the highest priced properties sold in the Atlantic Seaboard area since 2008 (one sale at R20m, two at R21m and one at R28m).

More than 90% of the property buyers have been locals, according to the agents. The buyers have mostly invested in second homes in the area.