If you are considering purchasing a Cape Town Property, you will already know that Cape Town offers one of the most picturesque cities in the world in which to choose your new home.
For those who are looking to combine their purchase of a Cape Town property, with a business, via the setting up of a guest house, please visit our guest house section for information on buying a guest house.
At Intergate Immigration we always have the clients interests at heart and our experience over the last 8 years in dealing with expatriates, South Africans abroad and foreign buyers has allowed us to tailor make Cape Town Property’s premier buyers consultancy via our sister company SA Homebuyers.
Most of the clients that utilise SA Homebuyers for purchasing Cape Town property are either busy professionals, foreign buyers or newly arrived immigrants.
Throughout this page we provide you with a number of Cape Town Property TIPS, these TIPS provide you with some myth busters as well important information about buying Cape Town property.
Cape Town Property TIP – If you seek a more discerning service that matches the financial and emotional investment you are about to make, contact one of our property directors for your non obligatory consultation. Learn about our fee structure, how we can assist in finding the perfect location, the perfect Cape Town Property and the perfect price.
Just a quick email to say “Thank You” for all the support you gave us during the purchase of our property. I’m sure you must already know how pleased we are.
Frankly, it is hard to imagine how the service you provided could be bettered. Not only were we guided through the legal and financial aspects but in particular, we genuinely felt you were acting in our very best interests at all times.
We’ll definitely be in touch again when we purchase our next property !
Regards,
What is a buyers consultant?
Buying a Cape Town property as a foreigner or from abroad can carry with it some inherent inefficiencies, frustrations and risks.
Most of our buyers are making a significant financial and emotional investment into their new Cape Town property and as such have every right to be particular in their choice of property and the service that accompanies the buying process. Our buyers consultants specialise in residential, investment and guest houses.
Using a buyers consultant is common in many countries around the world. Not only does a buyers consultant redress the imbalance, of only the seller have professional advice (via the estate agent), but often results in a better purchase at a better price, and dare we say via a service more befitting the level of investment.
A buyers consultant is a registered estate agent, so you benefit from the same levels of protection. There is however one major difference, buyers consultants do not stock property, or sell property, they are on your side. Their extensive knowledge, insight into the marketplace and professionalism in negotiating price, terms and conditions is all utilised for the benefit of you – the buyer.
Cape Town property TIP – If you have never used a buyers consultant before you may think that this is going to incur additional costs that you can ill afford at a time when you are making a considerable outlay or the service is reserved for clients spending millions. Think again.
- Our buyers consultants achieve an average 10 – 15% reduction on asking prices.
- Their legal training assists them in ensuring sales contracts are representative of the buyers needs.
- Their insight, research and in-depth knowledge gives you the edge in negotiations.
- We have helped buyers from R750,000 through to R30,000,000.
“Finding a good property at the right price was our top priority when we moved from London to Knysna. The South African home buying process is very different from the UK and we were pleased to find that SA HomeBuyers was able to explain all the ins-and-outs and warn us of potential pitfalls.So, thanks SA HomeBuyers.“
How a buyers consultant helps you to purchase your Cape Town Property
Below are the main steps of purchasing your Cape Town property and where we highlight the fundamental differences between a traditional house purchase process and utilising the services of a buyers consultant.
Sourcing your Cape Town Property
This often starts out as an enjoyable exercise.
Newspapers – browsing through the weekend papers and the local magazines. All of which feature Cape Town Property for sale in abundance. At last count the weekend Argus, Cape town Property Guide, featured no less than 3 separate inserts (each of more than 30 pages). As the properties are generally listed under each estate agent and not by area, this search can be time consuming and tedious.
Internet – added to the frustrations of a property search, a simple online search in Google of Buying Cape Town Property will return in excess of 23,000,000 million results.
Estate Agents – maybe you decide to first source a Cape Town Estate Agent, the good news here is Google only returns 563,000 results so you have narrowed the odds.
Sunday show days – can be an enjoyable day out, but are somewhat of a lottery. Are you driving in the right area and is the house you are entering anything like what you are looking for.
Is it still for sale – lets be honest the very best properties, especially those priced keenly, rarely make it to the newspapers, internet or show days. They have already been snapped up, ironically often by a client using a buyers consultant.
Cape Town property TIP – Browsing through the papers or ‘surfing the net’ can be enjoyable and certainly it is always interesting to see what is for sale. For a thorough search, that includes unadvertised properties and private sales, use a buyers consultant. Our Cape Town buyers consultants have access to all properties for sale and either conduct the search with you or even independently.
Seeing what really matches your needs
Anyone has bought a house, in fact a car or even a television, will have experienced those occasionally scary greetings of “How may I help you?”.
Of course it’s not the words that are scary or even the polite offer to help, it’s what comes after. Will we have to put up with being shown many items that do not fit what we need. In the case of a house – too many bedrooms, no swimming pool, over our budget, wrong area and many more.
The estate agent cannot be blamed, they are in the selling business and restricted by the properties that their agency has on sale.
It can however be frustrating for us, the purchasers, who would rather focus on Cape Town properties that match our requirements.
Cape Town property TIP – our buyers consultants carry out a full needs analysis with you. A series of consultations provide us with specific ideas of what you are, and what you are not, looking for in your Cape Town property. If you are unsure of areas or what you can get for your money, we will introduce you to areas and example properties until we narrow the search to what you are exactly after.
Roger and Mary Count
No dead ends
Yes we mean this literally. It may well be you are looking for that holiday home of your dreams, or are a recent or soon to be immigrant. Maybe you are simply moving from another part of South Africa. Navigating a new city, knowing where to go and avoiding rush hour traffic queues, can be quite time consuming and ultimately very disappointing if it’s to a property that does not match your needs.
Cape Town property TIP – let us pick you up at your hotel or temporary home and drive you to the properties. Not only does this negate the need for you to navigate your way around but also allows you to focus on looking at the areas and neighbourhoods.
Location – beyond the property
Always of paramount importance and again as a newcomer to Cape Town, or not being familiar with certain parts of it will you always know those hidden gems and places to avoid.
Location is in fact the first consideration for any buyer and due time and effort must be out into deciding this. Estate Agents are of course not paid to sell locations but paid to sell properties.
Cape Town property TIP – our property consultants take the time to ensure you have considered all the areas, know the infrastructure, the good- the bad and ugly. We realise that selecting the right location is just as important as the Cape Town Property itself.
Making an offer
It is common practise in most countries to make an offer to ‘test the water’. More often than not, this is not a binding offer but a price discussion. In South Africa all offers are in writing and legally biding. This offer is 99% of the time formulated with the estate agent (who legally must act in the sellers best interests) who the vast majority of the time is not a qualified legal advisor.
Furthermore the estate agent should not (in fact it would be highly unethical) advise you on what offer the seller may take. If they should venture an opinion it should be remembered that their mandate is with the seller and is to secure the best possible price and conditions on their behalf. In other words they are not their to get you , the buyer the best price and conditions. Importantly your buyers agent will also ensure you have a full understanding of all the costs associated with house purchase.
The offer to purchase lays out all terms and conditions and once signed there is no cooling off period. Please also note all offer to purchase contracts have a ‘sold as seen’ clause inserted in them – rather like you would use or see when carrying out a transaction for a second hand car.
The offer to purchase carries no wording of structural surveys or inspections other than a wood and electrical one.
In formulating the price, bear in mind that the majority of South African properties are unique. Prices vary tremendously from house to house never mind road to road or area to area.
The offer price should be carefully researched against building costs, comparable properties in the area in in-depth knowledge of the property market.
Cape Town property TIP – the offer to purchase document is THE MOST IMPORTANT DOCUMENT – we have some strong advice that you should follow before completing any offer to purchase document:
- Make sure you research the price independently of the estate agent – even if we have not sourced the property for you our buyers consultants will be able to help you with this.
- Always consult with an attorney before signing any offer to purchase.
- Ensure you allow provision for proper surveys where there is any doubt.
Our buyers consultants research the price on your behalf, formulate the offer to purchase and obtain legal opinion. We continue to negotiate the price to ensure you get the best price and conditions.
Ryan Mackie
Its not just about the property
So you’ve found the right house and depending on your circumstance there are a number of issues you might now face:
- For those seeking immigration to South Africa what visa must you now apply for?
- Renting out a house – where do you stand with tax?
- What is the best way of sending the purchase money over to South Africa?
- What about sending the money back out of South Africa if you ever sell?
- What effect does your residency status make?
- Do you now have to make tax returns in South Africa?
The above is just a few examples of the may issues buyers face.
Cape Town Property TIP – our buyers consultants specialise in foreign buyers, expatriates and South Africans abroad. They have access to experts in the fields of taxation (international as well), insurance, accounting, currency experts and immigration experts. When we say access we do not mean a referral to a third party under some commission type agreement but all within the Intergate Group of companies.
Summary
There is little doubt that the chances of finding the correct Cape Town Property, located in the correct part of Cape Town are greatly enhanced by using the services of Cape Town property buyers consultant. Contact us today for your initial consultation and lets us explain how we can save you money, time and provide a level of service that matches your investment.
