eThekwini 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 eThekwini, KwaZulu Natal, provides a detailed analysis of government-sponsored properties, freehold and sectional title homes, new and resale transactions, lending, and first-time homeowners.

The report, which draws on deeds data as of 30 June 2021, begins to unpack the impact of COVID and economic lockdowns on the residential property market. The total value of eThekwini’s residential property market in June 2021 was R447.8 billion, a 1.4% increase from December 2020. It is estimated that, as of 30 June 2021, 22% (100 180) of all residential properties on the deeds registry in eThekwini were subsidised by the state. In 2020, the total number of new transactions increased by 9.6% from the previous year, despite the economic setbacks caused by Covid-19, while during the same period the number of resale transactions dropped by 14%.  2020 also saw 5 952 households become homeowners for the first time, a decrease  from 6 180 first-time homebuyers in 2019. The number of government housing beneficiaries was outnumbered by the number of households who purchased their first house on the resale market.

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.

You can view a presentation summarising this report here. To visit our eThekwini online dashboard which enables targeted analysis of the C3 Transit Corridor and Durban Central, click here.

CAHF’s work in South Africa is supported by: