Property Brief - May 2024

The latest BetterBond Property Brief is out!

The data in this month’s edition confirms the strengthening – albeit slight – of the previous month’s cautiously optimistic view of the property market. The national average home loan value was R1.25 million – 1.2% higher than the 12 months to April 2023. It is also encouraging to see that the number of home loans granted in April 2024 was 20% higher than a year ago. These trends confirm that the slowdown in the residential property market over the past two years has bottomed out. Hopefully, a further decline in the consumer price index (CPI) will eventually lead to lower interest rates and, as a result, a stronger increase in home loan activity.

The full list of data points included in this Property Brief, is as follows:

In the Economist’s Notes, Dr Roelof Botha calls out the frustration over the ongoing restrictive monetary policy. This, he explains, has resulted in a sharp increase in the debt cost burden of households, while also acting as a constraint to activity in the residential property market. With the consumer price index (CPI) resuming its downward trajectory – mainly due to the steady drop in the food price index over the past 18 months – the drop in interest rates we had hoped for at the last rate announcement may materialise at the next MPC meeting (at the end of May).

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