Too late to rent?

Classic Business Day gets Mick Joyce on the line from Pam Golding Properties in the Western Cape about the exorbitant rates being paid for Cape Town rentals this festive season

LINDSAY WILLIAMS: If you haven’t rented your holiday home it may already be too late. Mick, is the rental market buoyant at the moment? A few weeks ago on Summit TV we looked at holiday homes - are people actually paying the absurd rentals I’ve seen in some of the magazines?

MICK JOYCE: I think there’s always the exception - the tendency to focus on one or two examples, where people achieve really exceptional rentals for their properties over holiday season - but while the rental market has been sound and we’ve been seeing good rentals achieved, there certainly hasn’t been as many instances of extreme rentals from a few years ago. That’s probably because a lot of international visitors are returning, and are more circumspect about jumping in and renting at any price.

LINDSAY WILLIAMS: What about the local tourist? Low cost airlines are bringing down the cost of travel so there must be a lot more people from places like Johannesburg flying to Cape Town pushing up the rental market - have you found that to be the case?

MICK JOYCE: There’s always been very healthy interest in Cape Town rental properties in the season both from South African and international tourists. The suburbs along the Atlantic seaboard have always been the cream of the crop, and are probably closest to the most desirable destinations in terms of the Camps Bay beaches and Cape Town’s nightlife, and the Camps Bay strip itself. The Blaauwberg area has always been particularly popular with the Gauteng visitors, and to a certain extent while that rental market has caught up in terms of the quality of apartments available out there we tend to see that affordability often does play a role in where people target their search. The cheaper airfares have certainly seen an influx of holidaymakers, and that’s most certainly supported the rental market.

LINDSAY WILLIAMS: Our guest stockbroker earns a decent wage - he is single and wants to visit Cape Town from 21 December to 6 January, somewhere like Clifton or Camps Bay. He will crawl out of bed for bacon and eggs, then go out to lunch - after a sleep in the afternoon he will get a cab into town for some clubbing - what sort of price are we talking about for a place like I’ve just described, a two bedroom place with a sea view in Camps Bay or Clifton? Are they available and for how much?

MICK JOYCE: At this late point you will find something, but certainly in that desirable area you can pay anything from R4,000 a day upwards for a luxury property. It really does depend on which suburb and exactly the size and nature of the accessories, and the additional luxury lifestyle elements in the particular apartment.

LINDSAY WILLIAMS: If you were looking to buy a holiday home would you consider Cape Town because for a certain amount of the year when you aren’t using it yourself you can rent it out?

MICK JOYCE: The Cape Town market is still in very good condition - we’ve seen appreciation taper off to a certain extent, however we’ve had fantastic sales through the early part of the summer season and that’s definitely an indicator that people are still looking for second homes. On a cautious note we have seen places further out of town - buying holiday homes up the coast - has certainly tapered off. We will probably only be able to call that trend more accurately once the whole of the summer and holiday season is over. In the Western Cape we certainly are still seeing definite interest in holiday homes from both local as well as some international buyers.

Src: Business Day (Presenter: Lindsay Williams, Guest: Mick Joyce)