Properties in the Western Cape are appreciating in value by 7.6% a year which, although lower than before, is more than double the national average.
Analysis from Lightstone has shown that, as at the end of December 2018, the national house-price inflation index was at 3%. The market has been ranging in the 2% to 5% zone for some time following a slowing down in recent months, says Lightstone analytics director PaulRoux de Kock.
But this is changing as more provinces – Mpumalanga, Limpopo and the Northern Cape – start to break above this range. “The Western Cape still outperforms the rest of the provinces with an annual rate of 7.6%, despite a drop of about 3 percentage points in the past year.
“The municipalities Ekurhuleni, City of Tshwane and City of Johannesburg metros are growing stably at rates between 2% and 5%, and the coastal municipalities are generally performing above this range.”
De Kock says low and mid-value wealth segments of the market continue to buck the trend by growing at more than 4% annually while the rest are inflating at rates below 3%.
Low-value properties are those valued at less than R250000, while mid-value homes are valued at R250000 to R700000. The luxury property segment (above R1.5million) has been the worst performer with growth rates of 0.2% at the end of 2018, while high-value homes (R700000 to R1.5m) have been following the national inflation trend, ending last year at 2.8%.
Mid-value properties have been increasing in value since September 2016 and ended last year with the best inflation rate of 5.6%. Yet while low-value properties saw the second highest inflation levels at 4.4%, these values have been steadily dropping since December 2016, when they peaked at 14.6%.
Furthermore, Lightstone’s data shows that, since September 2015, annual inflation of both freehold and sectional title homes has been declining. As of December 2018, the inflation rates for freehold were about 2.9% and sectional title 2.7%.
Provincial inflation rates at the end of 2018:
- Western Cape 7.6%
- Limpopo 6.3%
- Eastern Cape 5.3%
- Northern Cape 5.1%
- Mpumalanga 5.1%
- KwaZulu-Natal 4.1%
- North West 2.8%
- Gauteng 2.6%
- Free State 2.1%
Source: Lightstone Property
Municipal inflation rates as at the end of 2018:
- City of Cape Town 7.1%
- City of Johannesburg 2.4%
- City of Tshwane 3%
- Ekurhuleni 2.7%
- eThekwini 4.6%
- Nelson Mandela Bay 6.8%