Find out why the property sales volume in Centurion has doubled since March 2015.
Centurion has always been popular with buyers, which isn't surprising given its proximity to Pretoria as well as the military bases that are situated in and around the area.
However, Paul Greyling, owner of the Chas Everitt International franchise which covers the area has noted that sales volumes in his office have doubled since March this year.
The area encompasses some thirty suburbs and as such the type and price of property for sale varies significantly. Lightstone statistics reveal that the average selling price of a sectional title unit in Pierre van Ryneveldt, for example, where the average earnings of homeowners ranges between R24 000 to R37 000 per month is R815 000. The average price of freehold property is approximately R1.4-million. Eldoraigne is more upmarket and its residents earn on average between R43 000 and R51 000 per month. The average price of a sectional title unit in this area is just over R1-million while the average price of freehold property is R1.8-million.
Centurion offers a wide variety of properties to suit all sorts of buyers, from luxury estate homes to lock-up-and-go apartments, but the demand is currently greatest for sectional title properties in the R500 000 to R1,1m price bracket
He notes that Centurion is attracting many first-time buyers in the 18 to 35 age group and young families who want to send their children to one of the many schools in the area.
“The Gautrain and its buses have of course made the commute to work in Pretoria or Johannesburg much more convenient, but now Centurion itself is a burgeoning business area with job opportunities aplenty in the corporate parks, shopping centres and industrial nodes that are springing up here.”
The ongoing demand for property in the area has led to town planners earmarking all of the vacant land between the R55 (a road that connects the area to the northern suburbs of Johannesburg) to Fourways and along the N14 to Krugersdorp for security estates and complexes and developers are rapidly buying up all the available plots.
Jan van der Merwe, principal of the RealNet Centurion Core franchise says that although this area was once regarded as remote, it will be entirely developed within the next 10 years.
He says that sought-after developments in the area such as the Copperleaf Golf and Country Estate are part of a comprehensive plan to transform the area between Centurion and Krugersdorp into a mega-city, providing quality housing to the growing number of people choosing its central location.
He notes that although Centurion's image has been one of affordability, many of the new developments are in the upper price brackets. “Affluent buyers are streaming into the area to either build their own luxury homes or find their dream home among all the newly constructed mansions in the various estates.
Riaan Maritz CEO Harcourts Maritz says that the growth and sustained development and expansion to the west of the region is having a positive affect in the price of vacant stands in some of the new security estates where prices have more than doubled in the past 10 years. The shortage of serviced land has had an impact on prices and says that there are cases where vacant stands that were selling for R400 000 before the 2008 recession are now selling for R650 000.
“In addition, completed homes that were selling for R7000/sqm are now selling for around R9000/sqm, and it is only a matter of time before the boundaries of Centurion and Krugersdorp meet, because of the strong development focus on the western side of Centurion, where the R1,5bn Forest Hill shopping centre in Monavoni, is already in full service.”
However, new developments are still not keeping pace with demand, he says, with the result that the prices of the new homes that are being brought to market are also rising steadily.
