When one buys a home it’s as much an emotional as a financial investment and when buyers view properties, they are not only looking at the bricks and mortar but also assessing whether it would be a home that would suit their lifestyle needs.

As the property market continues to heat up and shortages of homes for sale in certain areas and price brackets start to develop, hopeful buyers and investors are increasingly turning to estate agents directly and paying them a fee to go out and find suitable properties.

After peaking in mid-2015 and a subsequent period of flat growth, Parktown North seems set for a return as developers target one of Gauteng’s most popular destination suburbs.

Bellevue East, located on the border of the upmarket suburbs of Observatory and Upper Houghton, emerged as one of the top performing suburbs in Johannesburg in terms of property price growth.

A new analysis by INRIX, has shown that Cape Town’s commuting vehicle drivers, spend more time in congested traffic than those of any other major city in South Africa.

Established 26 years ago, Silver Lakes Golf and Wildlife Estate, emerged as one of the top performing suburbs in Pretoria, according to Lightstone data.

While this has probably remained below the radar for many home owners, amendments to Regulation 68 47/1937 of the Deeds Registries Act which were published in January this year (2019) means that there’s a longer, more onerous - and no doubt costlier route you need to follow if you’ve lost the original Title Deed to your property.

Herschel Jawitz, CEO of Jawitz Properties, Chris Renecle, MD of Renprop and Dr. Andrew Golding, chief executive of the Pam Golding Property group, do all agree that the residential market is in for an interesting time in 2019 in South Africa.

2018 was a challenging year for the South African property market, with negative real price growth in the residential property market and slowing market activity.

After an unexpectedly tough 2018, but with the welcome announcement that the repo rate remains unchanged following this first MPC meeting of the year, the outlook for 2019 is somewhat brighter.