Celebrating a strong winning streak

Hello everyone

Just like the Proteas and the Springboks and all our other sportspeople who are brilliantly representing South Africa at the moment, Chas Everitt International is on a winning streak!

Firstly, I am very proud and grateful to say that we were presented with the coveted Vanguard award at the recent Leading Real Estate Companies of the World® Global Symposium held in Dubai. This award is made to the LeadingRE member company that consistently demonstrates excellence in technology innovation leading to increased sales as well as agent recruitment and retention, and we feel really honoured to have received this global recognition for our achievements among the 550 top real estate brokerages that make up the worldwide LeadingRE network.

Secondly, our digital marketing "Go" campaign is also proving to be a winner, having recently attained the silver award for the Most Innovative Social and Digital Media Campaign by a Small Advertising Agency at the New Gen Awards, and also gained a nomination for an international Globey award at the Advertising & Marketing Independent Network (AMIN) Worldwide's global conference in Bangkok this month.

This campaign, conceived by our digital marketing agency Stratitude, was specifically intended to set us apart in the real estate market by striking an emotional chord with the audience that conveys our deep and intrinsic understanding of the fact that buying or selling a home is a decision that goes way beyond the transactional. It also underlines our deep commitment to being a trusted guide for our customers on what is a profound and even transformative journey of realising their dreams.

Third, we continue to feel like winners every month as our incredible teams of dedicated, determined and highly motivated property professionals continue to achieve exceptional results in the face of high inflation, high interest rates, loadshedding and many other factors that have really dented consumer confidence in recent months.

They are all remarkable individuals who unfailingly give of their very best and continue to build on the trust and respect we have earned in our 43-year history of service to our customers, and at the end of our financial year recently, the rewards were evident. We were considerably ahead of our predictions in both unit sales and revenue terms - and out of sight of the negative market averages.

And with inflation seemingly on the decline and interest rates stalled, we are expecting the market to start recovering through the summer season and into the first quarter of next year, with rising demand slowly leading to a higher rate of price growth.

For now, though, I do want to urge anyone who is even thinking of buying or investing in property in and around Johannesburg to also become a "winner" by making a purchase without delay.

The latest statistics from property research company Lightstone show that while the national average house price is currently increasing at a rate of 3,93%, prices in Gauteng as a whole are only rising at an average rate of 1,89% and those in Johannesburg are actually in decline. This presents an opportunity that occurs only very rarely, since real estate values usually continue to rise, albeit very slowly. 

I personally have seen prices go into decline only once before, but remember all too clearly the excellent returns that were made in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis in 2008 by those who had the courage to buy the properties that were selling at bargain prices and wait for the market to stage a strong recovery over the next three years. Consequently, I am currently buying everything I can in Johannesburg, and hope you will too.