The surge in first-time buyers entering Cape Town’s property market – a notable 3.3 times more than this time last year – augurs well for a gradual house price recovery in the next few months, says Dr Andrew Golding, chief executive of the Pam Golding Property group.

Today’s repo rate reduction of 25bps (to 6.5%), coupled with early indicators of recovery in the South African residential property market augur well for the balance of the year and underscore the opportunity for home buyers to capitalise on the current favourable market conditions before the market enters a decisive upturn.

Increased over the past two years, contributing to excess supply predominantly in the upper-ends of the property market.

FNB House Price Index trends lower in February

With inflation still within the target range, but with concerns following a round of fuel price increases and other potential inflationary impacts, as was anticipated, the Monetary Policy Committee kept the repo rate unchanged following this week’s meeting, says Dr Andrew Golding, chief executive of the Pam Golding Property group.

Globally, people are prepared to pay a premium for properties in suburbs that have good schools, says Gareth Bailey, Pam Golding Properties area principal for Durban Coastal.

The Middle East is weak. Europe, Hong Kong, Macau and Canada continue to experience strong price rises. But China, Russia, Japan, and most of the Middle East are experiencing either house price falls - or a sharp deceleration of house price rises

In January 2018, the FNB House Price Index showed a slowing in year-on-year growth compared with the revised December 2017 rate. This comes after some prior months of accelerating year-on-year growth.

FNB says house price growth may be losing some momentum.

FNB house price index shows a slight acceleration in its year-on-year growth rate‚ to 6.4% in August from 6.3% in July.