The South African property market remains depressed with most segments showing a decline in prices in nominal terms in the third quarter of this year with nominal prices for houses in the middle segment falling by 2,6%.
Figures compiled by Absa show that prices of small houses declined by 2,1% while medium-sized houses were down by 1,7% and large homes fell by 1,9%. Luxury homes showed marginal nominal price increases, climbing by 1,8% while the affordable homes increased by just 1,1% in nominal price terms during the third quarter.
In the Eastern Cape house prices fell by 6,4% followed by Northern Cape where prices were down by 5,9%, KwaZulu-Natal falling by 5,5% and Limpopo by 4%. Gauteng prices in the third quarter dropped by 1,4% while in the Western Cape prices were down by 2,2%.
The only provinces to record higher nominal prices in the third quarter were Mpumalanga, up by 3,9% and Free State where the increase was 2,6%.
There was not much growth in prices in the metropolitan regions either with Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage recording price declines of 4,2% followed by Johannesburg central and south down 2,8% and northern and western Johannesburg falling by 1,5%.
On the East Rand of Gauteng, prices dropped by 2,9% while in Pretoria prices were 0,1% lower. In the Durban and Pinetown region, prices dropped by 4,7% and in the Western Cape they were 1,7% lower in the third quarter.
The coastal regions didn’t fare too well either with the Eastern Cape recording a drop in third-quarter house prices of 9,4%. There was some growth in nominal house prices on the South Coast of KZN with prices up 5,2% and on the south coast regions of the Western Cape where prices were 5,9% higher.
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