What the average house price in South Africa gets you in Durban, Joburg and Cape Town

Home buying activity in South Africa may be down, but property prices are still on the up.

According to the latest Oobarometer, homebuying activity has slowed in the current high interest rate environment.

“As expected, the prevailing ‘higher for longer’ interest rate environment has continued to impact Ooba Home Loan’s application volumes for the quarter. However, resilient South Africans will likely be rewarded by predicted rate cuts towards the end of 2024, said Rhys Dyer, CEO of Ooba Group

“In Q1 ‘24, the volume of home loan applications processed was down by 9% from Q1 ‘23 and down 25% from Q1 ‘22. However, we have seen an 8% increase in application volumes in Q1 ‘24 versus Q4 ‘23, and there is definitely more activity in the market.”

“Coupled with this, the uptick in property prices, first-time homebuyer deposit values and buy-to-let investments against the backdrop of steady bank approval rates are all positive trends.”

That said, the average price of properties originated through Ooba trended upwards, with year-on-year growth of 3.1% across both the first-time and national property price categories.

Both segments also increased by 4.8% from the last quarter, with the average national purchase price now sitting at R1,479,327, while first-time homebuyers are on average spending R1,171,798.

Dyer said that 62% of the value of applications processed through Ooba Home Loans fell within the greater than R1.5 million purchase price band in Q1 ’24 – higher than the 59% of application values in Q1 ’23.

“Conversely, a downward shift in homebuying activity in Q1 ‘24 in the price range below R1.5 million was recorded, as evidenced by Ooba Home Loans’ graph showcasing the home loan applications (value) by purchase price segment over the last five years,” he said.

“Year-on-year, the Western Cape and Mpumalanga registered the highest growth in the price of houses originated by Ooba Home Loans, showing a robust +9.4% and +9.5%, respectively,” says Dyer.

On the other end of the scale, despite housing in the richest area in South Africa, Johannesburg and the West Rand saw housing price inflation drop 8.6% in Q1 ’24.