As the year draws to a close, Lightstone shares some interesting data gathered over the past few months.
Overall residential market activity was down compared to previous years with 89 090 properties sold to date totalling R157,7bn – for the same period last year 261 097 properties were sold totalling R210bn and in 2018 a total of 315 899 properties were sold amounting to R243bn. This slowdown was however to be expected under the shadow of a global pandemic which has created an uncertain and turbulent environment.
On the upside, house price inflation in the Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga has seen surprising growth with inflation rates above 5%.
The upper and middle-upper value bands were among the top performers in 2020, which as reported previously is also where most first-time buyers took advantage of lower interest rates and the downward correction of prices to enter the market.
Single women continued to lead the way as the highest number of first-time buyers. This year, the value of the purchases made by first-time female buyers totalled just over R26,4bn.
Drieziek in Orange Farm saw the highest volume of residential property transactions and Midstream Estate in Centurion saw the highest combined value of transactions in 2020.
On the commercial property side, the most activity and highest combined value of transactions was seen in the Agricultural sector with property transactions totalling just under R10,76bn.
Let’s take a look at the year in numbers:
