If you had R1-million to spare where would you invest? What if you had R25-million? Which property would you buy? These are some of the questions that propertygenie.co.za, South Africa’s largest online property search portal that lists over 130 000 properties nationwide, recently posed in an online poll.

According to the poll residential property is the asset most South Africans would buy in if they had R1-million rand to invest, while a wine estate in Paarl is the dream property most South Africans would buy if they had R25-million to spend.

The research was carried out late last year by propertygenie.co.za to gauge whether South Africans' perceptions towards property had changed after a series of rate hikes and slower price growth.

“It’s still way up on top of investor’s wish list with 58 percent of respondents saying they would invest in residential property if they were given R1-million to spend, ” says Johan Strydom, general manager of propertygenie.co.za.

“It shows that despite the less favourable environment for house prices, investors are savvy enough to take a long term view and expect residential property to outperform over time.”

Commercial property was voted the second most desirable investment with just over 20 percent of the vote followed by the money market at 8.4 percent and gold shares with 7.8 percent of the votes.

Unit trusts received only just over four percent of the votes while only one percent of South Africans would put their money into art.

When asked what sort of property they would buy with R25-million a wine estate in Paarl was the top choice, with 35 percent of respondents, while a beachfront house in Clifton garnered 33 percent of the votes.

“It was neck and neck in the voting for this one with no clear winner until right at the end of the poll,” notes Strydom.

“Wine farms and Clifton have always been the most consistent dream homes for many people and are always on the top of the ‘must have’ for the mega-wealthy set.”

Surprisingly, third on the list was the ‘half the farms in the Karoo’ category with 20 percent, ahead of a ‘beach house in Plett’ which got 8.3 percent of the votes. A mansion in Sandton was fifth on people’s dream property wish list with 3.6 percent of people ticking this box.

“The survey was consistent with global trends that show that ‘lifestyle properties’ with space and healthy environments are at a growing premium the world over as cities become congested, polluted and increasingly pricey.”

Artcile from: www.iafrica.com