Where the buyers are...
According to the latest statistics from property data company Lightstone, young buyers between the ages of 22 and 37 have bought some 330 000 homes in SA over the past three years - and by our calculation that means that millennials now account for around 40% of all home purchases.
More importantly, 70% of the millennial transactions tracked by Lightstone were first-time purchases, which means that the SA property market has gained at least 231 000 new home owners since 2015.
That is very good news for developers and for the economy as a whole, because home purchasing has a major knock-on effect in terms of expenditure and job creation in associated sectors like construction, appliance and furniture manufacturing, home décor and DIY retailing and so on.
A further breakdown of the three-year stats shows that 14% of millennial buyers acquired homes for less than R250 000; 39,1% bought for between R250 000 an R750 000; 36,1% bought for between R750 000 and R1,5m, and 10,8% for more than R1,5m.
As for the type and location of the properties they chose, 60% bought a sectional title home, 27% bought a freehold home and 13% bought an estate home - and around 36% purchased in a major metropolitan area, stating with Johannesburg and Pretoria, and followed by Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth.
06 Apr 2019
Author RealNet
