Property Brief - July 2023

Despite home loan application volumes coming down during the current Reserve Bank rate-hiking cycle, average home loan values have held their own. Compared to the previous 12-month cycle, the average home loan granted for all buyers was unchanged, and for first time homebuyers declined only marginally (by 2%). The average home loan for all buyers is currently just below R1.2 million, and for first-time buyers marginally above R1 million. This means the latter group of homebuyers is maximising the government’s increased transfer duty threshold, which was moved up to R1.1 million in February 2023. When we compare BetterBond regions across the country, average home loan values are 67% higher for all buyers and 61% higher for first-time buyers in the top-performing Western Cape, versus the North West province.