South Africa Luxury Real Estate Market Sees Boom in Demand

South Africa s luxury housing dealers say the market is booming despite economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic Real estate agents say the need to work from home and have better security are some of the drivers while affordable housing for the poor remains a challenge Linda Givetash reports from Johannesburg South Africa s luxury real estate market saw an unexpected boom in 2021 despite the country's broader economic woes Property analytics firm Lightstone reported that the luxury market experienced a six-year high in the total purchase value of transfers Realtors say the pandemic has played a role in inspiring home buyers to go big Charlene Negus is an agent with the Firzt Realty Company Because everybody is now working from home everything has changed People now need almost like a study for every individual in the home So if you have two teenagers and two adults you actually need four workspaces now because they all end up working from home So a lot more study space She says backup electricity sources and updated internet infrastructure are among the amenities buyers are demanding They re also considering the many ways they use their homes from work to play People now need double the reception space because you want a facility where various parts of the family can have gatherings going on at the same time Also very importantly is the inside-outside feel Still the housing landscape is feeling the effects of the pandemic South Africa has seen jobless rates top 35 percent It s led to people selling their houses downsizing and even moving in with other family members Michelle Dickens is CEO of the TPN Credit Bureau Overall we actually saw deterioration in the number of sales in South Africa In fact we saw about a 15 deterioration in the number of sales from the preceding year And we're down about 50 from the decade prior to that So ultimately what we need is job recovery in order to encourage demand both on the rental and on the for sale side of the property market Dickens says vacancy rates in city centers have been on the rise since the pandemic began At the same time the country has a massive housing shortage The Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa reports a shortfall of 3 7 million homes and that gap is expected to grow by 178 000 homes every year It means 20 percent of urban households are in informal settlements Government housing isn t being built fast enough and older houses in communities like Soweto are rapidly falling apart Benjamin Van Wyk is a pastor in the Kliptown neighborhood of Soweto As a pastor I m crying because this is not the only houses that looks like this There are even others that is also worse Even if we could have money we would have built our own places But because people don t have jobs Even myself I m not working My wife is not working You see So really we are we are not fine We are not we are not okay The result is a landscape of extremes with slums and informal settlements on one end and luxury homes on the other Angelo Fick is director of research at the Auwal Socio-Economic Research Institute So the decreasing upper middle class will retreat into compounds behind fences privatized estates and sometimes even privatized cities But that's only sustainable in the medium term that's not long-term sustainability The long-term outlook on the housing market is unclear while the effects of the pandemic play out Experts say only economic growth and a drop in South Africa s unemployment rate will improve the landscape Originally published at - a https 3A 2F 2Fwww voanews com 2Fa 2Fsouth-africa-s-luxury-homes-see-boom-in-demand 2F6421755 html a Subscribe to VOA News a https 3A 2F 2Fbit ly 2F3KIPysi a Watch more VOA News video a https 3A 2F 2Fwww youtube com 2Fc 2FVOANews a Voice of America VOA is the largest U S international broadcaster providing news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of 236 8 million people VOA produces content for digital television and radio platforms It is easily accessed via your mobile phone and on social media It is also distributed by satellite cable FM and MW and is carried on a network of approximately 3 000 affiliate stations Since its creation in 1942 Voice of America has been committed to providing comprehensive coverage of the news and telling audiences the truth Through World War II the Cold War the fight against global terrorism and the struggle for freedom around the globe today VOA exemplifies the principles of a free press Connect with VOA News VISIT OUR WEBSITE a https 3A 2F 2Fwww voanews com a LIKE OUR FACEBOOK PAGE a https 3A 2F 2Fwww facebook com 2Fvoiceofamerica a FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM a https 3A 2F 2Fwww instagram com 2Fvoanews a FOLLOW US ON TWITTER a https 3A 2F 2Ftwitter com 2FVOANews a

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