Pam Golding Properties (PGP), South Africa’s largest residential property sales company by turnover, has recorded record annual sales of R6,521-billion rand for the financial year ended in February 2003, the group reported on Tuesday, up 37% from the previous year and almost 12,5% over its own budget.
The very strong performance reflects the strength of the country’s underlying property market, which has seen substantial growth and investment over the past year as investors turn away from the volatile and weak equity markets for a more stable source of earnings. This is despite very high interest rates, with the prime lending rate rising by 4% over 2002 to currently stand at 17%.
PGP’s unit sales of 10 122 were almost 9% higher than unit sales of 9 300 for the previous financial year. The group turned in record sales for January 2003 of R728,796-million, the highest turnover ever recorded by the company in any one month, with the previous record just under R700-million, reported in February 2002.
February 2003 also saw exceptional sales of R693-million, which was 30% over budget.
Said PGP group CEO Dr Andrew Golding: “This exceptional performance across all regions reinforces ever increasing confidence in property as a sound medium and long term investment, particularly in the light of the continued weakness and instability of global equity markets.
Mpumalanga and Northern Province, and which comprises almost half the total number of PGP offices within the residential group in South Africa, continued to reflect exceptional growth in sales year on year and also achieved record turnover.
Sales turnover for the past year was R1,959-billion, 58,4% higher than the previous year’s turnover.
The group’s Western Cape metro region reflected a 23,8% increase in turnover to 2.036 billion rand, with the Boland & Overberg region reflecting phenomenal growth in turnover of 95,36% with R1,018-billion in sales.
Offices with the highest turnover included Southern Suburbs, Table View, Northern Suburbs, Camps Bay, Atlantic Suburbs and Waterfront, and in the Boland & Overberg region Franschhoek/Winelands Route, Somerset West and Stellenbosch.
In the Gauteng region, sales turnover of R1,477-billion rand was up by 11,6% over the previous year, with an exceptional performance from the Hyde Park office, followed by Northcliff, Pretoria and Bedfordview. The KwaZulu-Natal region achieved a major increase in turnover with sales of R915,283-million, a 52.6% increase over the previous year, and with top performing offices being Umhlanga, Ballito, Margate, Pietermaritzburg, Berea and Durban North. The Umhlanga office also achieved the highest turnover of any franchise office within PGFS nationally.
The Eastern Cape/Garden Route also saw huge growth with sales of R610,62-million, reflecting an increase of 68,6% over the previous year. Notable performances were from Knysna, East London, Port Elizabeth, Plettenberg Bay, Port Alfred, George and Grahamstown. – I-Net-Bridge