Lightstone announces 2020 property outlook

ightstone Property’s recent indices seminar provided insight into SA’s property sector for 2020.

According to Lightstone head of analytics Paul-Roux De Kock, the take-home realities include a robust, fast-growing affordable market, a struggling luxury property sector that is expected to experience further negative growth, and a unique finding within the value band forecasts that sees sectional scheme growth projected to

Loutperform the freehold property sector. “After starting off last year with negative GDP growth in Q1, South Africans were desperate for an economic silver lining,” says De Kock.

In 2019 house price inflation ended just below the 2% mark, which is what Lightstone Property had forecasted in its lowroad scenario. “This is the first time that inflation came in under the lowroad scenario forecast,” he says.

A slow economy is likely to cause house price inflation to break through the 0% barrier in the second half of the 2020, ending the year with a 1.3% decline in home values should the lowroad scenario play out again.

On the positive side, now is a great time to buy a house, and homeowners wanting to sell can take heart. De Kock says the high-road scenario predicts a positive turnaround of house price inflation in Q2 to conclude the year on an optimistic trajectory.