Interest rate remains unchanged
19 Jan 2012

The Monetary Policy Committee announced today that the repo rate would remain stable at 5.5 percent leaving the prime interest rate at 9 percent.

With continued lethargic economic growth prospects, a reduction in the interest rate would have been welcome not only from a general perspective but also would have provided a further confidence boost in regard to South Africa’s residential property market, says Dr Andrew Golding, CE of the Pam Golding Property (PGP) group.

Adrian Goslett, CEO of RE/MAX of Southern Africa says this was expected and predicts that the rate will stay relatively steady over the next 12 months.

While the trading conditions during the past four years have been anything but boring, it seems that the South African property market has adjusted back to some sense of regularity, he says.

Aside from posting its best winter sales results in the history of the company during 2011, RE/MAX of Southern Africa’s overall sales figures for 2011 were up by 30% on the previous year

“Although deposits of between 10 percent and 30 percent will still be required by financial institutions to secure a property, they have relaxed their lending criteria slightly and are approving as many as 50% of the home loan applications they receive.”
See more on     http://www.property24.com/articles/interest-rate-remains-unchanged/14648