Property and Homes of Distinction: what's happening in 2020

2020 has arrived and Homes of Distinction are looking forward to the year ahead after a busy 2019 which saw our agents improve their market reading trends, the addition of 4 new members to the team/family and a record increase in the number of sales made.  
 
To find out what 2020 has in store for the property market and the Homes of Distinction teams, we spoke to Principal-Agent Jonathan Broekman about what his predictions are for the year ahead. 
 

2019 saw a slight improvement in the property market, do you think this trend will continue in 2020? What do you predict the property market will look like? 
 

Sadly, there's just no good news on the horizon and so we expect the property market to continue bumping along the bottom as it has for the past few years. There is just too much supply and too little demand to be able to see an improvement in values 

What do you think 2020 will bring in terms of growth for rental markets? 
 

Again, supply and demand play a vital role which has resulted in the rental market having been fairly flat for some time now. As some homeowners choose to sell their homes to be in a more liquid situation and to be able to "wait and see", while other homeowners choose a rental as a cheaper alternative to owning a home; I think that the rental market will strengthen sooner than the selling market. 

As security continues to be such a prominent issue in our country, do you think this will increase the demand for townhouses, clusters and freestanding houses in boomed off areas? 
 

That was the one point I stressed in my Carte Blanche interview: that spiralling crime and the ever-increasing cost of maintaining and securing larger properties means that secure communities/estates/complexes will continue to be evergreen and a more popular option for most buyers. 

When it comes to real estate marketing (and listings), are newspapers a thing of the past? Will digital marketing drive property trends going forward?  
 

We started the migration to digital and social media marketing 5 years ago, as the need to target our advertising spend became more important. The shotgun approach of advertising in a weekend newspaper and hoping our younger and more tech-savvy buyers may purchase a newspaper no longer yields results. In this fast-paced instant results environment, we need to reach more people faster and only have a limited time to make an impression. We currently reach over 200 000 people a month across our various platforms, so our strategy has worked. 

How will HOD be driving sales for the coming year? 
 

As always, we will continue to offer our clients the best service and marketing available to reach buyers more quickly. Experience has proved that despite the market conditions, it's still possible to sell a home in a reasonable time. We closed 2019 on a new record 30% up on last year, so we will continue to keep doing what works plus a few new techniques we are developing to keep the pot boiling. 

What are HOD's 2020 goals? 
 

To keep on servicing clients and doing what works to keep providing positive results. We are a small agency of 15 very focused and well-trained agents (with great systems and admin backup) who enjoy doing what we do, and so we do it well. 

If you're thinking about selling your home in 2020, contact Homes of Distinction for a market-related valuation today. 

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