Africa-Press – South-Africa. While national property sales volumes have declined, prices have surged, especially in Cape Town, where a R1 million home in 2014 now exceeds R2 million.
This is according to Lightstone Property, which analysed South African housing market data from 2014 to 2025.
It found that residential house prices have risen the fastest in percentage terms in the lower price bands over the last ten years, as the gap between the higher and lower bands has widened.
Lightstone managing executive Hayley Ivins-Downes said their analysis confirmed that property volumes have drifted downwards while prices have escalated most significantly in the higher price bands.
Residential property volumes have declined from 247,000 units sold in 2014 to 218,000 units in 2025, with just the Covid-19 “bounce” years of 2021 and 2022 bucking the trend.
Beyond property volumes, several notable shifts have also occurred in the property market, including changes in prices and the mix of properties from 2014 to 2025.
At the higher end of the market (properties over R2 million), housing has become an investment asset and a store of wealth, not just a place to live. Considerations in this segment now include asset inflation and capital flows.
Supply constraints, such as zoning laws, planning restrictions, and local opposition to development, have also impacted the country’s property market over the last 10 years.
The South African property market has also seen demographic changes. Older homeowners are staying in their homes for longer, downsizing less often and holding large amounts of housing wealth, all of which reduces turnover.
Finally, Lightstone noted that monetary policy has also had a significant impact on the South African property market.
Long periods of low interest rates following the 2008 financial crisis have pushed asset prices, including housing prices, higher.
Property volumes: transactions 2014-2025
Property price growth in different area types
From 2014 to 2025, there has been a growing gap between luxury properties, valued at R2 million to R4 million, and other price bands.
However, the growth in percentage terms at 156% was less than that of affordable properties, which cost R500,000 or less, which grew at 230%.
The high-value category (R1.2 million to R2 million) and the mid-value category (R500,000 to R1.2 million) experienced slower growth at 150% and 141%, respectively.
Lightstone stressed that property values across municipalities vary widely. For example, a property that cost R1 million in 2014 would now cost R2.1 million in Cape Town and R1.5 million in Nelson Mandela Bay.
A R1 million house bought in 2014 would now be worth R1.4 million in eThekwini and Tshwane, and just over R1.2 million in Johannesburg.
Looking at sales volumes and property type, Lightstone found that freehold sales have declined gradually over the years.
This was mirrored by the slow growth of sectional title properties. Estates as a percentage have more or less remained static.
When it comes to sales value, freehold properties have slipped from 50% in 2014 to 48% in 2025. Sectional title homes have nudged upwards from 25.6% to 25.8%, and estates have moved from 24% to just over 26%.
The trend is holding, and lifestyle changes, which came during and immediately after the Covid-19 pandemic, could partly explain the shift.
“South Africa’s housing market is resilient all around and robust in parts,” Ivins-Downes said. “Stabilising forces include population growth and immigration, which raise demand, and limited housing supply prevents large price drops.”
Ivins-Downes explained that business and investor confidence in the Western Cape continues to drive the property market forward.
There are also pockets elsewhere in the country where the higher price bands do well, such as the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast, parts of the Eastern Cape and the area around Hoedspruit.
The likely outcome in many residential property markets without reform is lower homeownership, higher rents and greater wealth inequality.
What a R1 million property in 2014 would cost in 2025 in different municipalities.
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