You have decided to sell. Two agents have come through. One quoted R2.8 million, the other R3.1 million.
The higher number felt good. It was your home, after all; you have put years into it. So you listed at R3.1 million and waited.
Eight weeks later, the phone is not ringing. Your agent suggests a price reduction. You are frustrated. And you are still paying your bond, rates, and levies every month while the property sits.
This is not a rare story. Right now, it is the most common one on the market.
Homes are sitting longer than they have in years
The latest data from the FNB Estate Agents Survey is telling: the average time-on-market for residential properties reached 12 weeks and three days in Q3 2025. That is up from under ten weeks in 2022, a meaningful shift that has happened quietly, without much fanfare.
The FNB Estate Agents Survey tracks sentiment and market conditions across South Africa's residential property sector each quarter. The Q3 2025 figures reflect feedback from active estate agents nationwide.
To be clear, 12 weeks is not a catastrophe. Homes are still selling. But the gap between a well-priced property and an overpriced one has widened considerably. Correctly priced properties are still moving in six to eight weeks. Overpriced ones are the reason the average has crept up.
The distinction matters for sellers, because every extra week on the market costs real money.
The holding cost problem nobody talks about
Most sellers focus on the sale price. What they overlook is that the clock is running while the property is listed.
Your bond repayment does not pause. Your rates and municipal charges continue. Your levy keeps going. Your building insurance renews. If the property is empty, you might also be covering security and garden maintenance on top of everything else.
A typical mid-market property might carry R8,000 to R12,000 per month in holding costs. That is before accounting for what you could do with that capital if it were already in your account.
Wait an extra three months because your price was too high? That is R24,000 to R36,000 gone. And that is the optimistic version of the outcome.
What happens to overpriced properties
The MyProperty Sentiment Index 2025, based on feedback from over 200 estate agents nationwide, found something striking: more than 75% of homes end up selling below the asking price, and in many cases only after extended delays.
This is not because buyers are difficult. It is because buyers in 2026 are well-informed.
Most serious buyers have seen dozens of listings before they contact an agent. They know what similar properties sold for in your suburb. They cross-reference prices and compare value. When a property comes to market overpriced, they do not argue with it; they simply scroll past it.
As Adriaan Grové, CEO of MyProperty and Entegral, noted: "Overpricing is not just testing the market. It delays your sale, erodes trust, and often results in the property selling for less than if it had been priced fairly upfront."
That last point is the one that stings. Overpriced properties do not just take longer to sell; they typically sell for less than they would have at a realistic price from the start.
Why? Because buyers notice how long a listing has been live. A property that has been sitting for 90 days carries a stigma. "What is wrong with it?" becomes the first question. Lowball offers follow. The seller, now anxious, is in a weaker negotiating position than they were on day one.
"Buying the listing" and why sellers fall for it
Here is a dynamic worth understanding, because it directly affects how many sellers end up overpriced in the first place.
When you invite estate agents to quote your property, there is a natural temptation to favour the one who gives you the highest number. It feels validating. It is your biggest asset, and someone has just told you it is worth more than you thought.
Property attorneys and consumer advocates have a name for this tactic: buying the listing. It happens when an agent deliberately inflates their suggested price to secure your mandate, knowing full well that the price will need to come down once the property fails to attract offers.
The agent gets the mandate. The seller carries the consequences: months of holding costs, price reductions, and a final sale that often lands below what a fair price upfront would have achieved.
The antidote is not to choose the agent with the lowest quote either. It is to understand the real market dynamics in your area and go in with a price buyers will respond to immediately.
What this year's market is telling sellers
This year's market is often described as "balanced", which is accurate, though it offers little comfort to sellers who have come in at the wrong price.
Buyer confidence is improving. Interest rates have been cut meaningfully from their 2023 highs, and first-time buyer activity is rising again. But buyers have also spent years becoming more sophisticated, more research-driven, and more resistant to inflated pricing.
The properties that are selling well share a common trait: they were priced correctly from the start. In this market, that means pricing in line with recent comparable sales in your area, not what your neighbour thought their house was worth eighteen months ago, and not the peak prices from the post-pandemic run-up.
Sellers who align their expectations with today's market (rather than yesterday's) are completing transfers in six to eight weeks and walking away with the strongest net proceeds.
The number that matters most is not your asking price
This is the part most sellers only discover towards the end of the process, when it is too late to change the outcome.
Your asking price is not what you walk away with. By the time agent commission, bond settlement, the 90-day notice penalty, compliance certificates, and municipal clearance are accounted for, the actual amount that lands in your bank account can look quite different from the figure on the For Sale board.
A property marketed at R2.5 million might yield net proceeds of around R1.2 million after costs, assuming a typical outstanding bond. Sitting on the market for an extra three months chips away at that figure before transfer has even happened. See our full guide on transfer duty and upfront costs for the buyer side of the same equation.
Knowing your real net position before you price (not after) changes the conversation entirely. It means you can weigh a realistic listing price against your actual financial outcome, rather than anchoring to a headline number that does not reflect what you will receive.
What to do before you set your price
Before you invite agents to quote, before you have the pricing conversation, it is worth running your own numbers privately.
Understanding your current bond balance, your holding costs, and the likely selling costs for your property gives you something most sellers do not have going into that first agent meeting: a grounded sense of what different sale prices actually mean for you financially.
It turns the question from "what can I get?" to "what do I actually need, and what is a price the market will respond to?"
That is a much stronger position to sell from.
- Average time-on-market reached 12 weeks and 3 days in Q3 2025, up from under 10 weeks in 2022
- Holding costs of R8,000–R12,000 per month mean every extra week unsold costs sellers real money
- More than 75% of homes sell below asking price, often after extended delays caused by overpricing
- 'Buying the listing' is a real tactic: agents inflate valuations to win mandates, leaving sellers to carry the consequences
- Knowing your net proceeds before you price — not after — puts you in a fundamentally stronger negotiating position
Zettl's seller tools are free and take around three minutes. They show your estimated net proceeds after every cost — agent commission, bond settlement, the 90-day notice penalty, and compliance certificates — so you know your real position before anyone else benefits from your decision.
Sources: FNB Property Research — Estate Agents Survey Q3 2025. MyProperty / Entegral Sentiment Index 2025.