FNB Residential Property Barometer for February 2021

Key themes

• Recent data shows better-than-expected house price growth; further demonstrating the decoupling of economic fundamentals and housing market outcomes.
• Interest rate-induced demand remains strong, but momentum is slowing.
• Incidents of downscaling due to financial pressure continue swelling, although lower compared to GFC.
• Rental market pressures persist; vacancy rates are climbing and rental escalations slowing. Anecdotal evidence shows that some of this stock is being released into the market for sale.
• Labour market weaknesses remain a major concern. Data shows, in line with our expectations, that job losses are now migrating to more white-collar workers.

In the report, FNB also outlines their expectations for 2021 by price buckets. Full report attached.Property_barometer_February_2021

Kind regards,

The BondExcel team