For some people second-hand and luxury might be words that should never mix but for the savvy and collection conscious these two words are a perfect pair. There has been a huge increase in the pre-owned luxury market globally.

A survey by ResearchAndMarkets.com stated that “The global luxury resale market in 2021 was valued at US$32.61bn, and is likely to reach US$51.77bn by 2026.” These sentiments are echoed by Michael Zahariev, the co-founder of Luxity, an SA company that specialises in pre-owned luxury. Zahariev believes that by 2027 one in 10 luxury items bought in SA will be pre-owned.  

We spoke to Zahariev on the changes he’s seen in the market, his six-year-old business and also found out which popular luxury brands SA customers can’t get enough of.

“The most popular brand is Louis Vuitton… the definite winner is Louis Vuitton, we sell the most Louis Vuitton and we get the most Louis Vuitton. It sells for among the highest prices compared to the new retail and it definitely is the most searched on our website as well,” he says.

The second most popular is Gucci, followed by Hermes and Chanel. All the pre-owned luxury goods sold by Zahariev are sourced within and sold in SA. The business started off as an online store and four years ago its first physical store was opened in Melrose Arch. It then moved to a bigger location in Sandton City and has other stores in Pretoria and Cape Town. Zahariev says their largest number of clients is in Gauteng but there has been an increase in customers from Limpopo, Durban and Gqeberha.  The store authenticates and conditions all items it sells.

“What we’ve done is create greater access for South Africans because with pre-owned you’re automatically at a lower price point, because it’s generally trading at a discount, so that allows for greater accesses. But we also have allowances like payment plans which allow customers to pay over three months... this offers middle class South Africans options,” he says.

Zahariev says that over time his customers have changed; where it used to be high net worth individuals selling the items and upper middle class individuals buying, it’s now started to overlap and high net worth individuals are using the store to source limited edition pieces.