Property will always find a place

UNCERTAINTY is the order of the day, but as I have been repeating over the past 24 months, fortune favours the calculated brave. Last month’s auction delivered some extraordinary excitement, as well as the interest and prices achieved in the residential and hospitality sectors.

The market has softened when it comes to non-income-producing properties and properties in outlying areas. Banks are conservative on valuations and are making it difficult to obtain finance on these properties. There have been multiple buyers for residential buildings/offices that can be converted into hotels or apartments. These properties seldom find their way to the market and when they do become available they are snapped up.

Everything changes and we are proud South Africans and this current economic and political landscape will most definitely come to an end and improve. There will always be improvements and with so many heavily invested companies and individuals in the country, everyone will work together to make things better.

Times might be tough at the moment and it may take time, but the deals for good, wellpositioned properties will always come and increase in value over time. The commercial sector in Gauteng and smaller outlying areas has taken a pounding with oversupply and lesser deals. We can only expect that the property industry finds a way of reinventing the obsolete and vacant spaces to become attractive to the investor and end-user. Conversions to storage and residential are and have been happening for years.