SA home-price inflation rises to 8.2% in May

South Africa’s annual residential property price inflation edged up to 8.2% in May, from a revised 8.1% in April, according to figures released by Statistics South Africa on Thursday.

The residential property price index increased by 0.7% over the month.

Stats SA published the May 2026 report at 09:00 on 8 October. The figures therefore describe transactions from May, rather than price movements during October.

The Western Cape recorded annual growth of 11.2% and contributed 4.7 percentage points to the national increase. Gauteng’s prices rose 5.5%, contributing 1.9 percentage points.

Across metropolitan areas, annual price growth was 8%. Cape Town recorded an 11.5% increase, followed by Ekurhuleni at 7.3% and Tshwane at 5.3%. Johannesburg recorded 4.8%.

The metropolitan breakdown also showed different outcomes for properties entering the sales records for the first time and those being resold. The first-sale index fell 0.3% year on year, while the resale index increased 8.3%.

Freehold property prices across the metros rose 9.3%, compared with 6.3% for sectional-title properties.

The latest 12 months of data remain subject to revision as deeds records are updated.