Is it the right time to buy South African property?

Interest rates are high; the banks’ credit-granting guidelines are at their most stringent and consumers are tightening their belts, but there has never been a better time in recent years to invest in property.

In January 2009, Statistics South Africa will implement the new weights for the Consumer Price Index and thus adjust the methodology by which the South African inflation rate is calculated. The reduced weighting for food and increased weighting for motor vehicles means consumers can anticipate a decline in the measured inflation rate – and that means less pressure on South African Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni to raise interest rates.