A survey recently carried out by the respected property analysts, Lightstone, has revealed a range of statistics that will be of interest to anyone keeping track of property trends in South Africa today, says Rowan Alexander, Director of Alexander Swart Property, the Cape Town estate agency headquartered at Brackenfell.

Buying a new home continues to become more affordable as weakening housing demand results in ongoing negative real price growth (after inflation) in the residential property market.

2018 was a challenging year for the South African property market, with negative real price growth in the residential property market and slowing market activity.

May 2018 saw the FNB House Price Index growing by a faster 4.6%, year-on-year, up from the previous month’s 3.8% in April, and from a February 2018 low of 2.8%.

After a four year high of unprecedented double-digit growth, South Africa’s strongest market took a knock in 2017 with a significant drop in sales volumes and price growth, but the new year has got off to a promising start with a record apartment sale price and three sales within 24 hours of listing.