The broad picture emanating from the FNB Home Selling Estate Agent Survey remains one of financial constraints and caution, in an environment of economic weakness and uncertainty.
The 4 “pro-cyclical” motives for selling as a group continued their gradual decline, as a percentage of total selling, reflective of broad market softening since 2015. We believe that the very high level of selling in order to downscale due to life stage is not only driven by strong growth in the size of the older middle and upper income population numbers, but also due to a sizable group of the ageing population wanting to “offload” larger homes, that are increasingly costly to operate, in favor of smaller and less costly homes.
However, in the 2nd quarter 2017 survey this group’s percentage declined noticeably, which could mean a portion of ageing home owners deciding to postpone such down scaling until a later stage when the market is hopefully a better sellers market than the current time.