South Africa’s house prices one of the worst performers in the world
The Q2 Knight Frank global house price index shows that South Africa’s house prices significantly declined in real terms over the last year.
Knight Frank global house price index tracks nominal and real price growth in local currencies of average residential prices across 56 countries and territories.
The overall index rose 10% per annum, marginally from 10.9% last quarter. It surprised Knight Frank, who expected a notable slowdown in the second quarter.
“We expected a significant decline in the index’s overall performance and in relation to the number of countries seeing house price declines in annual terms. Neither materialised,” it said.
51 of the 56 countries and territories tracked continue to register an increase in house prices annually despite the gloomy economic outlook.
“Even when we look at the data over the last three months, that figure only drops to 49 of the 56 markets,” it said.
“Perhaps we’re premature with our doom-mongering, and the inflexion point will be next quarter.”
However, inflation significantly impacted the real growth of house prices this year.
“When considering inflation, house prices in real terms are averaging just 1.6% growth in the year to Q2 2022, down from 6.2% a year earlier,” it said.
South Africa was one of the countries which showed a significant decline in real price growth, adjusted for inflation, over the last year.
The report revealed that South Africa’s house prices grew by 3.6% in nominal terms but lost 3.6% in value when considering inflation.
South Africa was one of the worst countries for nominal house price growth, ranking 47th out of 56 countries.
The table below shows the house price growth in 56 countries over the last year.
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