Citymark National Housing Market Report - 2024

Based on title deeds data as of 31 December 2023, this report analyses South Africa’s residential property market with a particular focus on the bottom of the property ladder, including affordable housing and houses delivered through South Africa’s national subsidised housing programme. Market segmentation by property value enables a more nuanced analysis of housing stock and performance in the low value market. Indicators also reveal trends in access to finance by low income households and mortgage lending activity at the bottom end of the housing market.

The data reflects that, after two years of  increased market activity post-COVID, transactions in 2023 took a knock, with 20% fewer transactions taking place and 26% fewer bonds issued than in 2022. This is likely due to rising interest rates which were sustained into 2024.

In 2023, South Africa’s residential property market comprised 6.91 million properties and was valued at R6.789 trillion. Importantly, 76% of those properties were valued under R1.2 million while two-thirds were valued at          R900 000 or less.  The stock of low-value residential properties is largely due to government’s massive public investment in housing over the years. At present 32% of residential properties were subsidised by government, comprising 2.183 million units. Given that this report is based on deeds data, it does not include the large number of houses that are part of the title deed backlog. If these properties were also included, the share of government-subsidised properties in the overall residential market would be 43%.