Third quarter 2025: positive trends emerge in South Africa's property sector

The third quarter of this year shows promising signs of renewed growth and stability in the property sector.  

Interest rate cuts

This follows a series of interest rate cuts that have brought much-needed relief to consumers, stimulating buyer confidence. At the same time, the sector was seeing shifts in regional dynamics, with the Western Cape no longer dominating search trends. 

Much of this positive movement is attributed to the interest rate cuts that occurred earlier in the year.

“With interest rates slowly declining over the course of the year, we’re now seeing real signs of renewed buyer activity, particularly as more affordable lending conditions make homeownership more accessible to a larger part of the population," says Adrian Goslett, the regional director and CEO of REMAX Southern Africa.

“If inflation continues to remain low, another rate cut could further accelerate this positive momentum heading into the upcoming year.” 

According to Statistics South Africa, the annual headline inflation rate increased to 3.4% in September 2025 from 3.3% in August 2025. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased by 0.2% month-on-month in September 2025. 

According to the Labour Research Service Inflation Monitor, there is more than one inflation rate. The labour movement says different groups, from the very poor to the rich, can experience different rates of inflation because they buy different things. 

It said the Eastern Cape (3.1%), Mpumalanga (3.2%), Gauteng (3.2%), Northern Cape (3.2%) and Free State (3.4%) were the provinces with annual inflation rates lower than or equal to the headline rate.

Western Cape (3.7%), KwaZulu-Natal (3.7%), North-West (3.9%) and Limpopo (4%) were the provinces with annual inflation higher than headline inflation.

Strengthening his argument, Goslett, referring to the October BetterBond Property Brief: “In reaction to the five successive cuts of 25 basis points each in the Reserve Bank’s repo rate (which automatically feeds into the prime lending rate), the BetterBond index of home loan applications increased by 11.6% QoQ and 14.6% YoY during Q3 2025…

"Since bottoming out in Q4 2023, the number of home loan applications has increased by 26%, although it remains 15% lower than during Q1 2022, when the Reserve Bank started to follow a restrictive monetary policy stance and the prime rate eventually increased to a 15-year high of 11.75%.”

Rate cuts could further boost the sector

With the above in mind, he explains that there is space for activity within the housing market to strengthen further should interest rates continue to drop and the overall state of the local economic growth reflect greater recovery.  

Home loan lending growth remains modest, however: SARB data shows a 2% year-on-year rise in outstanding mortgage balances as of July 2025, which suggests the current upswing is not credit-fuelled. But that could change, says Bradd Bendall, the National Head of Sales at BetterBond.

“If interest rates remain stable, or come down further, we could see more buyers using that affordability to their advantage,”  Bendall says.

“That includes first-time buyers, investors looking for well-priced stock, and existing homeowners ready to make their next move.” 

For property owners, he says this is a steadier environment in which to sell. For investors, steady price growth and improving fundamentals point to a more stable asset environment. And for first-time buyers-particularly women entering the market around the age of 35 – 2026 may be their moment to get on the property ladder, he says. 

“Property remains a long-term investment,” Bendall adds. “But the conditions going into 2026 are more balanced and predictable than they’ve been in years.”

The REMAX SA network says it registered sales managed to grow by an impressive 19.03% in Q3 2025, and it seems as though this growth is likely to continue in the months to come, with the brand’s reported sales (i.e. deals that have not yet been finalised through the Deeds Office) for this period growing by a staggering 29.09%.

It says the average days until marked as sold on remax.co.za for Q3 2025 was 7.2 days (based on new listings both created and marked as sold during this quarter).

This points to a property market that is alive and well despite the challenging external economic environment, the real estate company says. 

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