With so many residential developments to choose from in Cape Town’s central city today, it’s hard to believe that Mutual Heights, the first major residential development, was launched just a few years ago in 2003. Investor confidence was high, as buyers scrambled and 90 percent of the units sold out in the first week.

The city centre has traditionally been seen as an investor's market and investors have realized attractive returns buying off plan. Today, buying in the city centre is no longer only an investor dominated market as more and more people are buying to live in the city.

Many a property owner presently faces the brunt of increasing interest rates. At the time of acquiring a property many prudent investors make provision to absorb slight increases. Any increases beyond 2 %, as recently announced, make serious demands on the average family’s household budget.

You might be in the unfortunate position where affording your homeloan is causing sleepless nights.Financial institutions are fully aware of the present economic climate and the effects on the average consumer.

Your home might mean more to you than it does to a potential buyer, so consider these ordinary reasons why you, as a seller, could be tempted to have your home or property on the market at an extra-ordinary, over-priced and unrelated market price; 

Many buyers entering into the purchase of Sectional Title are under the incorrect impression that their newly acquired apartment space is theirs to do with exactly as they please. This can be a dangerous assumption as the Sectional Title Act makes provision for improvements which negatively impact on other owners in the scheme, to be halted or approved by resolution from the body corporate.

Many Sectional Title schemes have rules in place governing improvements and the access of contractors to the common property.

It is estimated that around one thousand houses and properties are on show every weekend in Cape Town. This method of marketing has proven to be the most effective. You may have concerns about putting your home on show, so we have outlined some reasons why they are in your best interest.

Most local residents are aware of the Sunday show times from 14:00 – 17:00, and it is not unusual that potential buyers and sellers spend their Sunday afternoons driving around, viewing show-houses and assessing the market trends.

With little land available for development along the Atlantic Seaboard, a new R22 975-million townhouse complex soon to be built in Green Point is likely to attract a great deal of interest from buyers, according to Michelle Cohen and Beverley Joffe of Dogon Group Properties, which has been given the exclusive right to market the project.

"69 on High will comprise four individual title, low-maintenance townhouse units and a freestanding family home that will offer the secure, lock-up-and-go lifestyle that many purchasers now desire,” Joffe says.

AN APARTMENT on Clifton's Moses Beach has sold for R48 million, the highest price recorded for an apartment sale in the city and possibly the largest residential property sale ever in Cape Town.

The 720m2 duplex is located on the bottom two floors of Eventide, the most recently constructed apartment building in the Atlantic Seaboard suburb. It was sold by Dogon Group Properties (DG).

This time last year, DG sold a four-storey, 1 248.39m2 Clifton villa for R42m, which at the time was the highest price recorded for a house sale on the Atlantic Seaboard.

The explosive growth in internet usage worldwide and the huge popularity of the free video sharing website YouTube inspired the Dogon Group to launch a pilot project in Noordhoek a year ago to test the value of “real movie” technology, the latest trend in global property marketing.  The pilot proved such a success in providing a real taste of each property to buyers, including those based overseas, that the concept is now being implemented in all Dogon’s offices on the Atlantic Seaboard.

Video