South African mortgage originator ooba reports a significant growth in bond applications and approved home loans in March.
This three bedroom Melkbosstrand home carries a list price tag of R7.5 million, but Rawson Properties is inviting offers from R6.5 million.
The company’s latest data reveal that home loan approvals showed year-on-year growth of 49 percent for March and ooba says this is the best performance since April 2008 and only 34 percent of the value of the approvals ooba recorded in May 2007.
Chief executive officer of ooba, Saul Geffen says this is thanks to increased buyer activity and easier access to finance.
Geffen explains that South Africa's economy grew at a rate of 3.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 and an improvement in the job market, which will also impact the residential property market.
"Consumers understand that in today’s tough lending environment, using a mortgage originator to apply to multiple lenders significantly enhances the chances of securing a home loan approval.”
He says there has been a continuous increase in the number of homebuyers making use of mortgage originators, given originators’ strong value proposition of securing approvals and on competitive terms.
Set on an 892 square metre plot, this four bedroom Newlands home is selling for R8.99 million through Anne Porter Knight Frank.
Meanwhile, Anne-Marie Evans, sales consultants at the Rawson Properties Group, says property buyers are actively looking to purchase beachfront homes at Melkbosstrand on the Cape’s West Coast.
The beachfront lifestyle with homes designed in modern, almost cubist, flat-roofed style with white plastered walls is enough to get buyers excited.
Callie Porter, of the Anne Porter Knight Frank estate agency says Newlands could be described as an elite suburb thanks to houses with appealing designs set against the mountain backdrops.
Newlands is also closely located to Cavendish Square and the Claremont CBD, good schools and sports venues.
“Newlands still is a suburb in which almost every Capetonian would like to live but it has never had those over-the-top pretentious homes that are found in many of the other really affluent suburbs.”
In Johannesburg, Seeff Properties Randburg says homes in Northcliff, one of Johannesburg’s older more established suburbs situated northwest of the CBD are being snapped up by buyers who see value and are drawn by the suburb’s location.
Located on Frederick Drive in Northcliff, this five bedroom home is selling for R10.5 million through Seeff Properties Randburg.
The suburb is bounded along its north western side by 14th Avenue, which has the nearest onramp to the N1 highway.
Northcliff has easy access to the Johannesburg CBD, Sandton and the West Rand with schools, tertiary educational institutions, business, sporting, medical, retail, entertainment and other services and amenities located close by.
The upper slopes and the ridge of Northcliff hill are dominated by large upper income homes, which lie on attractive inclines with pretty tree lined streets that wind their way up the cliff to the exclusive and unique Northcliff properties near the top.
Homeowners on properties located on the sought-after in Frederick Drive enjoy 360 degree views stretching as far as the Magaliesberg Mountains. - Denise Mhlanga
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