The residential property market, as reflected by Standard Bank's property book, continued to lose growth momentum in November, recording 4.8% year-on-year growth compared with 6.5% in the preceding month, the latest data shows.
This takes the median house price to R581 000 in November, from a revised R593 000 in October.
In real terms, the median price grew by 1.2% y/y in November, a relatively sharp fall from the 3.1% y/y gain in the growth of the median house price in October, the research indicates.
The median house price decreased by 2.2% m/m in November, from a 2.9% m/m increase in October.
Standard Bank said despite this loss of momentum in the annual growth rate, the increase in November is the result of base effects compared with November last year when the index saw a decrease of about 4.5%.
Standard Bank property analyst Johan Botha said more light will be shed on consumers' financial health next week when the December 2010 Quarterly Bulletin of the South African Reserve Bank will be released.
"Of particular importance will be developments as far as household disposable income, debt and wealth are concerned," he said.
In the meanwhile, recent data on the supply side of the economy, namely business confidence, retail sales, credit extended for mortgage financing and inflation signal a somewhat muted outlook for the SA economy, the bank noted.
