Pam Golding Properties, South Africa’s largest retail property group, has concluded sales worth over R1-billion to foreign investors from 48 different countries over the past 11 months (1 March 2002 – 31 January 2003).
This represented approximately 8% of total units sold by the group over the period, CEO Andrew Golding said on Tuesday.
Golding said that after UK buyers, German investors were currently the second largest foreign purchasers of South African properties through PGP.
The third top overseas buyers were Americans, followed by investors from Zimbabwe, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Australia, Austria, France, Namibia, Italy, Canada, Mozambique and other countries as diverse as China, Denmark, Greece, Ethiopia, Sweden, Taiwan, Poland, Portugal, Russia and Japan, among others.
“Since 9/11 increasing global instability has resulted in a growing number of tourists and investors flowing into South Africa, and this trend continues to increase,” he commented.
“While foreign investors often tend to purchase homes in the upper price bracket, there’s a definite increase in interest in properties in the middle price range from R600 000 to around R1,2-million.
“There’s also a strong demand for properties with not only a usage option– ie for holidays–but also for those which yield an investment return or generate income, whether these be coastal homes, guesthouses, ecotourism developments or lifestyle estates. Properties in demand are broad spread, including apartments and homes in the Western Cape, Garden Route and Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga,” Golding concluded. – I-Net Bridge