South Africa's real estate market remained buoyant into the first quarter of 2003 despite the increase in the costs of mortgage finance in the first nine months of 2002, the Reserve Bank (SARB) said in its latest quarterly bulletin.

According to the Bank, the overall seasonally adjusted value of turnover, measured by transfer duty paid, remained relatively steady at an average monthly level of R277 million in the first half of 2002 from R276 million in the second half, before increasing to an average of R310 million in the first quarter of 2003.

In 2003, the first four months' average level of transfer duty paid represented an increase of 10.4% year-on-year versus the same period of 2002, a rise more or less comparable to the growth in mortgage advances of 11.2% from April 2002 to April 2003, the Bank observed.

Residential property prices, meanwhile, rose by 16.6% on the year in April 2003, compared to average increases of 14.3% in 2002. This could be due to purchases in anticipation of lower interest rates, it said.

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