Business Day (Johannesburg)
Thabang Mokopanele
4 November 2009
Johannesburg — WHILE there were signs of house price declines stabilising and the economy bottoming out, a quick turnaround in the housing market was improbable, Standard Bank 's residential property report says.
The report, released yesterday, however gave no indication that the bank thought house price growth would turn positive before the second quarter of next year.
The bank's property book for the first 10 months of this year showed an average monthly decline of 4,3% in the median house price. This brings the number of monthly declines to 17 successive months. Last month's data yielded a rate of contraction of 4,6% year on year.
Standard Bank property analyst Johan Botha said there were signs that the residential property market was stabilising and that interest in residential property was returning. "In real terms, using our estimate of the consumer price index in October to deflate nominal house prices, the decline in real house prices comes to approximately 10,6% from 11,5% in September," he said.
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