Pretoria - Re/Max International, the multinational property group based in the US, which returned to the southern African region, was expanding into the commercial market, Dave Liniger, the co-founder and chairman, said this week.
Liniger said Re/Max was setting up offices focusing only on commercial real estate throughout the world because the international transfer of money for the building of factories was a huge business and a natural evolution for his company.
He said Re/Max had one office in Durban that focused on commercial property, but the goal was to also open "commercial only offices" in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town within the next six months.
Liniger said residential sales were important, but commercial sales were much more important. He said 8 percent to 10 percent of the sales of Re/Max associates represented commercial property deals, before it started expanding into the commercial market.
Liniger said Re/Max had opened commercial associates in 28 major US cities and its goal was to have associates focusing only on commercial property in the 100 largest markets in the US.
He said Re/Max would have three trade missions for commercial property investment next year in Europe, the Pacific Rim and US for people looking for and exchanging information about property. He said because Re/Max was a central clearing house, it had brokers that could mix and match different types of properties around the world.
"Property values in South Africa are so low that there is a tremendous opportunity for investors to buy a second home," he said.
Liniger said there were many real estate opportunities in South Africa because home ownership rates were so low.
He said local home ownership rates were estimated at 40 percent for whites and less than 10 percent for blacks and there was significant room for growth in both.
"There is a big black population and their share in the economy is growing. Property ownership creates wealth. Societies with high rates of home ownership are also more successful societies," he said.
He believed the home ownership rate in South Africa could be increased from 60 percent to 70 percent. "We're excited about South Africa and see it as a major emerging market."
Liniger said Re/Max was currently number three in South Africa in terms of the number and value of its property sales and its goal "was to be number one within the next 18 months".