"Using terms such as "blood bath" and "desperate" is sensational and downright irresponsible journalism‚" says Mike Greeff, CEO of Greeff Properties, an affiliate of Christie’s International.  He was referring to an article which appeared in the Cape Times on Wednesday 25th January 2012, titled,“Bargain ‘bloodbath’ in SA property market.” “I’ve been putting out fires at every meeting I’ve been to since the Cape Times printed this article – this is such an inflammatory and damaging headline – sellers have gone into blind panic mode based on a coupled of quotes which have been blown out of all proportion,”  says Greeff. He urges sellers to stay calm and look at the actual statistics in their areas.

“Sellers are definitely being more realistic, and the massively inflated asking prices we saw during the peak in 2007 have come down, in some cases by around 14 percent, however the constant demand for homes in proximity to schools, shopping and business centres, as well as local beaches, continues to maintain selling prices in the Southern Suburbs, City Bowl, False Bay, and Atlantic Seaboard,” says Greeff, whose agents operate in the aforementioned areas.

“Of course there are desperate sellers around the country, but certainly in our areas of operation, bargains are not as prolific as the article presents them to be, and buyers are highly unlikely to find the kind of sellers Mr Ismail Hendricks of Auction Alliance (who is is quoted in the Cape Times article) states are willing to sell for up to 30 or 40 percent below what market value should be,” says Greeff, adding that in the Southern Suburbs alone, for example, according to Propstats, selling prices were on average only 11 percent below marketing prices on sales totalling R3.9 billion for the period 1 December 2010 to 26 January 2012.

Greeff adds that Mr Hendriks purports to be a veritable oracle in that he states there will be an upturn in the property market in July 2013. “What is this prophecy based on? I’d love to know how Hendriks can forecast an upturn with such apparent accuracy. I’d certainly like to have that level of certainty,” quips Greeff.