While lower rates would help revive first-time buyer demand, the increased influence of these interest rate sensitive buyers would likely remain just one factor among many, rather than the dominant market driver they were for much of the past two decades.
The long-standing relationship between interest rates and selling times in South Africa's housing market appears to have broken down-at least for now.
Even the aggressive post-pandemic hiking cycle failed to push the average time it took to sell a home above the long-term average of 13 weeks, says Sandra Gordon, an Independent Research Economist.
She says despite the still high interest rates, the national time on market actually fell by one week to 10 weeks and six days in the second quarter of this year, according to the latest FNB Estate Agent Survey.
“That's a sharp contrast to previous cycles, when elevated rates typically resulted in far lengthier selling times.”
