Be prepared to pay as you stay

HENTIES Bay, Mariental and Windhoek are currently the priciest places in Namibia to hunt for homes, the latest research by FNB Namibia has shown.

The new FNB Housing Index, released yesterday, showed that a house in Henties Bay come with a median price tag of N$790 000, while in Mariental and Windhoek, buyers will have to fork out N$637 500 and N$596 000 respectively.The median price, most commonly used to compare real estate prices in different markets, is the price in the middle of a range of lowest to highest prices. In a group of 13 houses, the median price will therefore be the price of the seventh house, with six houses cheaper than the median price and six more expensive.Analysts prefer to use the median price rather than the average price, as the average price can be skewed depending on whether there more expensive or cheap houses in a group.Also in the highest median price group for 2012 are Gobabis with N$561 850 and Swakopmund with N$550 000.The towns with the lowest median prices are Aranos (N$140 000), Usakos (N$200 000) and Eenhana (N$230 000).Namene Kalili, FNB Namibia’s manager of research and competitor intelligence, also looked at how median prices of houses have changed in Namibia since 2007.Grootfontein showed the biggest increase. The median house price in the town rose by 197 per cent since 2007, up from N$176 500 to N$525 000 this year.Then followed Gobabis, where a median house now costs N$561 850, 152 per cent more than the N$222 700 in 2007.Lüderitz and Okahandja also showed three-digit increases of 140 per cent and 102 per cent respectively. A median house in Lüderitz currently comes at a price of N$398 500, while in Okahandja it costs N$508 000.The median house price in Windhoek has shot up by 59 per cent since 2007, from N$375 000 to N$596 000.Kalili attributed the big increases since 2007 to people migrating from the rural to urban areas. ‘There is quite a bit of interest in these towns,’ he said.There are also towns where the median price has dropped since 2007, most notably Oshikango and Aranos. A median house in Oshikango sold for N$1 million in 2007; now it costs a mere N$339 250, a crash of 66 per cent. In Aranos median house prices plummeted by 36 per cent, down from N$220 000 to N$140 000.