Although the number of property sales in Ermelo has dropped slightly, the figures still highlight that property remains in high demand in this small town in Mpumalanga.
The re-commissioning of the Camden Power Station and the Usuthu Colliery continue to fuel the demand and is undoubtedly part of the reason behind this area’s extensive growth over the past couple of years.
Statistics that have been released by Lightstone reveal that there have been 202 transfers in the area in the last 12 months. Price averages have increased steadily across the board since 2009, and although sales volumes in general are down, this does not seem to have had an effect on property prices in this pretty little town.
In 2011, the average price paid for a freehold property, which forms just over 93 percent of market stock, came in at R734 000, with the sectional title average hovering around the R538 000 mark. The stats further reveal that 86 of these sales fell into the R800 000 to R1.5-million price bracket and encouragingly, 63 sales fell in the price band of R1.5-million to R3-million.
Almost 50 percent of existing property owners are between 36 and 49 years old. However, almost 40 percent of recent buyers to the area are aged between 18 and 35 years. Just over 61 percent of owners have lived in the area for less than 7 years, indicating that there is a fairly high influx of new residents to the area year-on-year.
Although price averages have maintained healthy growth levels in recent years, the area has not been immune to the recent economic downturn and the stats indicate that in 2009 there were 36 properties sold in execution in Ermelo. This figure dropped to 25 properties in 2010 and encouragingly, in 2011 there was only one property sold in execution. Just over 90 percent of the properties purchased in the last 12 month period have required mortgage finance, with the total Rand value of bonds approved coming in at R113, 513-million.
