Ekurhuleni Housing Market Report - 2021

As part of our series of reports on the eight metros in South Africa, this report on the residential property market in Ekurhuleni, provides a detailed analysis of government-sponsored properties, freehold and sectional title homes, new and resale transactions, lending, and first-time homeowners–based on analysis of deeds data as of 30 June 2021. Valued at R504 billion as of June 2021, Ekurhuleni’s residential property market is the smallest of the three Gauteng metros. A little over half of Ekurhuleni’s residential properties are valued under R600 000, while 28% of all properties on the deeds registry in Ekurhuleni (171 326) were subsidised by the state.

Despite economic lockdown, total new transactions rose by  19% in the 2020, the first year of the pandemic. Comprising 68% of total transactions, resale transactions dropped 6% in 2020.  In the context of record-low interest rates, the number of first-time homebuyers/owners in the metro rose by 9.4% in 2020, however the data shows this growth was largely due to increased delivery of government-subsidised houses, not increased bonded transactions.

With support from the Cities Support Programme of National Treasury, the Citymark project undertakes analysis of South Africa’s residential property markets, with a particular focus on the lower end of the market. Utilising title deeds data obtained from Lightstone Pty Ltd, the analysis separates the market into five segments, allowing the careful examination of the differentiated performance of the entry level (under R300 000), affordable (R300 000 – R600 000), conventional (R600 000 – R900 000), high-end (R900 000 – R1.2m) and luxury (over R1.2m) markets.

CAHF’s work in South Africa is supported by: