A frequent discussion, certainly in financial circles, but as well amongst attorneys, particularly conveyancers, is the question of when the property market will recover. My personal belief is that there has not been tremendous losses when it comes to good property in excellent locations, and that is from personal experience, but if for example you take an area like Hartbeespoort, I can tell you that the falls have been as heavy as 70% over the last five years, if not more, if I consider an offer I rejected on a piece of land that I recently sold at a substantial percentage loss.

I don’t think property values are every going to soar like they did a few years ago, until the banks once again lose sight of all reality, come up with some or other new financial product, and start extending loans to people that they should not extend loans to. That may take 10 or 15 years for them to forget the most recent batch of mistakes they made. I do think however that we have already seen a recovery in properties costing under R1 million, and it appears to be more the middle market of say R1 to R4 million, a lot more damage has been done and prices will probably take quite a bit longer to recover. I don’t think quality properties in quality locations have ever really gone down very much and because they are limited in number they are not going to be as affected as the areas of the market where of course there is a lot more available – ultimately it still always gets down to supply and demand.