The Gauteng division of Pam Golding Properties (PGP) has had an outstanding first six months of the year in spite of a slow housing market, and prospects for the full year look excellent, says Dr Andrew Golding, CE of PGP.

“Our Gauteng residential sales of close to R2-billion in January-to-July this year are considerably ahead of forecast but are also significantly up on the same period last year. Notably, year-on-year unit sales have increased by as much as 30 per cent.”

Dr Golding says encouraging recent trends in PGP’s operations in Gauteng are an increase in cash transactions and the re-emergence of investor buyers, who have been virtually absent for some time.

“Canny investors often sense that the market has bottomed out and that the risk of persisting with a wait-and-see strategy is higher than the risk of investing now for maximum possible return.”

As an indication of the Gauteng division’s contribution to group performance, six of its offices were among the national top 10 PGP branches in July. They were led by Hyde Park, which is consistently the group’s number one performing office in the country.

John Herbst, who has been appointed national sales executive of PGP, is based in Johannesburg and says Gauteng is the powerhouse of South Africa’s residential property market.

Dr Golding says strong growth in the Pretoria homes market has prompted PGP to restructure its operations in the area by combining the constantly well-performing Centurion and Pretoria East (Menlyn) branches into a separate, sharply focused, operating region within the Gauteng division.

“The newly-named Pretoria region has launched a recruitment drive for outstanding agents to add to its existing team of 80,” says Dr Golding.