Vredehoek: Not Selling? Time To Raise The Price!

Reader KS writes:

This apartment has been on the market for at least a year at R1495000. Now it's asking price is R1535000. I guess when things aren't selling the logical plan of action is to raise the price R40 Gs.

Me thinks someone is trying to recoup some bond payments...

Saturday Open Thread - Other Cities

It's the Saturday open thread. This week's topic: What's happening in other cities? We're CT focused but if you're a reader in Jozi/Durbs/Bloom/PE let us know what's up!

Dear Agents: Please Try Harder - Woodstock

Modern Townhouse - Brand New

And from the ad:

BRAND NEW! Never been on the market.

Maybe it's never been on the market before because it hasn't been completed yet!

A New Blog To Follow

House Price South Africa

Some great graphs and insights on property and population growth.

Orangerie: You Just Lost A LOT Of Money

Back in 2008 you could buy off plan a 2 bed/2 bath 120m2 duplex at The Orangerie for between R3 100 000 and R3 500 000. Today you can pick one up for R2 650 000.

That's at least a R400 000 drop in capital value not to mention the potentially hundreds of thousands of Rands in bond payments.

And the scary thing is a couple months ago a similar unit was on the market for R2 300 000!

Update: A reader just sent me a link to the latest (dated 3 Jan 2011) price list for the Orangerie

Here's how the prices compare:

Unit	Initial Price	Jan 2011 Price
AG 3	R3,31,2000	R2,850,000
AG 9	R3,445,000	R2,850,000
AG 10	R3,275,000	R2,850,000
BG 3	R3,289,000	R2,850,000
BG 4	R3,312,000	R2,850,000
BG 13	R3,346,000	R2,850,000

If you bought off plan back in 2008 I hope you negotiated your purchase price down. Waaaaay down. Also good luck selling your unit in the near future while it competes with unsold developer stock.

Saturday Open Thread: Marcus Holds Repo Rate Steady

It's the Saturday open thread. This week's topic - The Reserve Bank held the repo rate steady. How long will they do so?

Saturday Open Thread: Asking Price Drops

This is the Saturday Open Thread! This weeks topic: After yesterdays R40m to R23m price drop post what's the biggest asking price drop you've seen?

For us it was this post when we saw an asking price drop R800 000 from R3.7m to R2.9m.

Biggest Asking Drop Ever?

REDUCED FROM R40M TO R 23,5M TO SELL IMMEDIATELY

That is if you believed it was worth 40 bar in the first place.

But if it's true... R17m off? 42% of the asking price? Yikes!

Saturday Open Thread

It's the Saturday Open Thread!

Saturday Open Thread: Nuwe Jaar!

It's the first open thread for 2011. Predictions anyone?