Brackenfell Still Offers The Best Value For Money - But IS Becoming More Expensive.

Forty-four percent of all home buyers in Brackenfell, the Cape Town northern areas suburb, have been in the 18 to 25 year old age group over the past 12 months - the most popular price bracket for all buyers was R1,5 to R3 million. Within this bracket, the 304 sales of the last year had an average price of R1, 992,000.

These figures, says Rowan Alexander, Director of the estate agency Alexander Swart Property, indicate very clearly the trends in Brackenfell. He and his team, have pointed out regularly, an influx of younger buyers attracted by good value prices.

Home prices have risen steadily year by year, for at least the past five years (in the region of 9 to 10 % pa). Younger buyers, he adds, are quite often able to find employment in Brackenfell because it has become a fast growing industrial, manufacturing and retail distribution node, due to decentralisation by many Cape businesses.

"Young upwardly mobile buyers of today have understood very clearly, that no other Cape Town middle class suburb offers such good value as Brackenfell. Furthermore, our figures indicate that because the area has had such a complete transformation and is so well provided with schools and facilities, the vast majority of these younger buyers STAY in Brackenfell, choosing it as the place in which to upgrade to a bigger, more expensive home. As a result, 45% of all home owners in Brackenfell have lived there eleven years or more and form a stable core in the community today.

Most home sales are by the older generation, many between the ages of 50 to 70, as they are usually selling to be able to move on to a retirement property, often much further away from the Cape Town CBD. As a result of Brackenfell's success, they have in the majority of cases, been able to realize significant profits on their properties."

 Is Brackenfell reaching the stage when it will no longer be "affordable"?

"We have very definitely not reached that point yet", says Alexander, "but with new developments now far fewer than they were in the Brackenfell boom development years - which saw more than 1000 new homes brought to the market - it has to be recognised that EXISTING properties will be in stronger demand: get in now or you may find it too expensive in a year or two."

For further information, please contact Rowan Alexander on 082 581 3116 or email: rowan@asproperty.co.za