Five major metros accounted for sales in SA for over 46,000 homes in 2022. Andrew Golding, head of Pam Golding Property Group, said sales in five major metros had increased noticeably in the post-pandemic period”. According to Lightstone statistics, and combining freehold and sectional title sales in Cape Town, Tshwane, Johannesburg, Durban and Gqeberha, 46,497 homes were sold in 2022. This is below the 48,438 recorded in 2021, a level which reflected the rebound from the pandemic-induced slump in 2020.
“Looking at total sales in the five major metro housing markets, Tshwane accounts for just over a third of all sales at 33.6%, followed by Cape Town at 24%. Johannesburg, SA’s largest city and economic hub, accounted for 20.2% of all sales in the five major metro housing markets. Durban came in at 12.2% and Gqeberha at 10%.
“Over the past 10 years, Gqeberha and Tshwane have gained the most market share of the total national units sold. Cape Town, surprisingly, was largely unchanged, but the trend towards semigration to areas and towns across the Western Cape perhaps accounts for this.
“While the stats for the Durban metro may seem lower than anticipated, they should be viewed against the backdrop of a residential property market in KwaZulu-Natal that has spread further out along the burgeoning north coast, as well as along the south coast.”
Golding said while there had been a slow but steady shift from freehold to sectional title sales at a national level, within the metro markets there had been a clearer shift, presumably because land, and therefore homes, are more expensive within metro areas due to a shortage of available land.
“In 2013, 44.6% of all sales in the five major metro housing markets were sectional title. “While the Covid-19 lockdowns and work-from-home trend resulted in an increased demand among some for more spacious freehold properties in 2020 and 2021, by 2022 sectional title sales in these metros had risen to nearly 52% of total sales.”
