A global view: how housing prices in South Africa compare

House prices are one of the most important measures of wealth for many South Africans. A house is a home, but an investment too and for many the largest single asset a family has.

So, how does South Africa compare to other markets?

We have taken a look at two visual sets of data put together by visualcapitalist.com – one measuring nominal house price growth over 12 years, the other measuring real house price growth (after adjusting for inflation) over the same period.

The result: SA does not compare too favourably in either data set.

Nominal prices growth

Real prices growth

Real prices assess the value of a good after adjusting for inflation. This is expressed in constant values relative to a base year, in this case, 2010. Nominal prices do not adjust for inflation.

South Africa’s real house price growth - after adjusting for inflation was -5%.