Johannesburg student housing: are maintenance issues negotiable or deal-breakers?

L

LivVale

Seller
The +0.3% price movement surprised me because the same sample had a marketing time of roughly 109 days. It covers Johannesburg student housing advertised from ZAR 14,340,000 to ZAR 21,510,000, although differences in condition make the headline figures difficult to interpret.

More properties are appearing, but few are in a state I would consider buying. The missing piece is how purchasers respond to deferred work: for example, does a costable repair lead to a lower offer, while an uncertain structural issue sends them elsewhere? I would like to compare recent completed sales and the timing of reductions to see whether either reveals more than current asking prices.
 
I would separate visible, costable work from open-ended problems. If the work can be itemised, a buyer has something concrete to put into a lower offer. If its extent is uncertain, walking away becomes much more attractive when there are alternatives. Seller motivation matters too: 109 days advertised does not necessarily mean the owner is ready to concede.
 
How tightly did you draw the neighbourhood boundaries, and did you remove withdrawn and relisted properties? Student housing on opposite sides of an arbitrary boundary may look comparable on price but attract different demand. Relisting can also make marketing time appear shorter than the property's real exposure.
 
I would not draw much from the +0.3% yet. In a small sample, condition and listing mix could produce that movement without the underlying market changing.

The more useful comparison may be price-cut timing: well-kept stock versus properties needing work, measured from the first listing rather than the latest one. Withdrawn stock should sit in a separate group, not disappear from the analysis.
 
Diego's distinction is important, but I would go further and split maintenance into cosmetic work, known functional repairs and uncertain defects. Buyers may negotiate the first two because they can estimate them. The third category can stop a deal, especially if the buyer's financing leaves little room for work after purchase. A single “condition” label hides that difference.
 
Financing could also explain why two apparently similar buyers behave differently. A lower purchase price does not automatically solve the problem if substantial cash is still needed for repairs. I would add two columns to the sample: whether the property appears usable without immediate work, and whether a price cut happened before or after a long period on the market.
 
Agreed on separating the repair types, though I would be cautious about judging what is immediately usable from listings alone. The practical next step is to match completed sales, cuts and withdrawals within the same neighbourhood boundaries, then note condition consistently. If neglected properties are repeatedly withdrawn rather than sold after cuts, that supports the “buyers move on” interpretation.
 
There is probably no single answer until seller behaviour is included. Maintenance may be negotiable, but only where the seller accepts what buyers think the work is worth. I would rerun the sample using first-listing date, final asking price, outcome, condition category and neighbourhood. That should show whether 109 days ends in a sale, a meaningful cut or a withdrawal.
 
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