The New Year is over and it is back to business as usual across all sectors. The property market has certainly seen a thriving start to 2012 with some unexpected results already so early in the year. As I mentioned last month, we are living in unpredictable times. Holding on to certain attitudes without expecting the unexpected may result in lost opportunities.

Recently there was a commentary made by an industry member on the state of the property market in 2012. The statement reflected the opinion of that auction house which was that South African sellers of property are in a “doomsday” situation. Due to recession and personal financing, they will have to accept that the market will only pay below value prices for their property. This gross sensationalism is often used as a scare tactic to coerce sellers into placing their property on the market at low prices and accepting lower offers.

To be frank, although this statement does have an element of truth, it unfortunately does not create a sense of understanding amongst sellers that they need to be open to market related offers. What it does do, is create a sense of panic, whereby sellers “read between the lines” and come to the conclusion that they should not be selling property in 2012 at all.

This is damaging for the entire industry as it creates a stale-mate whereby purchasers are keen to buy properties that are not on the market and sellers, desperate to sell, are holding on to properties in the hope of 2013 being “the promised year” for a market upswing.

No one knows how the markets will react and our Group already in 2012 has sold various properties for higher than their market evaluations. My message to buyers and sellers of property for 2012 is this: Auctions allow for competitive bidding in a transparent forum. Those buyers who want a particular property will bid for it and pay what they see the value to be. Should it not meet the sellers expected price, then a regroup of ideas may be necessary. In these circumstances, opportunities to sell should not be lost in the hope of securing an uncertain outcome.

Yours sincerely,
Jonathan Smiedt