The average time a home stays on the market before being sold has increased further by two days to fifteen weeks and six days in the third quarter. These figures show that the market is slowly drifting away from equilibrium and price realism.

John Loos, a household and property sector strategist at FNB said that 93 per cent of properties sold for less that the asking price in the third quarter compared to 92 per cent in the previous quarter.  He says that the shift away from market equilibrium has happened more in some areas of the country’s coastal metros where the average time a home stayed on the market before being sold was 20 weeks and two days in the third quarter.

He points out that Gauteng had quite a solid position since the average time a home stayed on the market remained approximately 12 weeks. Regions that showed to be weaker were Cape Town, Ethekwini, and Nelson Mandela Bay. Cape Town average time on the market was close to 16 weeks, Nelson Mandela Bay to 17.57 weeks and Ethekwini 27.43 weeks.

The average in greater Johannesburg was 12.43 weeks and Tshwane Metro 11.79 weeks.

According to Loose, Namibia was much further away from market equilibrium than South Africa with an average time a home remained on the market before being sold of 24 weeks and two days. The market in Cape Town, which acquired a good strength in recent years, appeared to be moving towards a longer average time on the market in the second quarter of this year but it picked up in the third quarter.

Loose said that because of the current economic situation, it is likely that the average time a home remains on the market before being sold will continue to increase.