South Africa real estate market — prices, rental yield and trend
- Average price: $1,064 / m²
- Gross rental yield: 11.53%
- 12-month price change (USD): 11.8%
- Transaction cost: 14%
- Price basis: national average
Residential property in South Africa averages $1,064 per square metre, +11.8% in dollar terms over the last twelve months. No market in the set of 70 is cheaper. In local currency the same twelve months read +4.7%; the 7.1-point gap is the exchange rate, not the housing market.
What a buyer pays in South Africa
The $1,064 figure is a national average across all residential property types, which flattens a wide spread — the capital typically runs far above it and small towns far below. Buying costs — transfer tax or stamp duty, notary, registration and agency — come to about 14% of the price here. On a 100 m² apartment at the average price that is roughly $14,896 on top of the $106,400 purchase price. That is above the 9.5% median across the set — the entry cost is part of the investment case here. Inside South Africa we also track Cape Town separately, where the average is $2,250 — 111.5% above the national figure.
What it earns
Long-term letting returns about 11.5% gross on the purchase price — the highest gross yield of the 69 markets in the set. Measured against local earnings, the price-to-income ratio is 3.1 — that is how many years of an average local income one average home costs, and it says more about who can buy here than any price figure does.
How this figure is built
The price figure for South Africa comes from the source we judge most reliable for this market. It was last refreshed on 2026-07-23. We rate our confidence in this market’s data high: the underlying series is official and current. We recompute every market the same way; a figure that fails our checks is suppressed, not guessed.
Sources: GPG yields · globalpropertyguide.com · theafricanvestor.com · numbeo.com. Snapshot: 2026-07-23.
Latest South Africa market analysis
Related markets: Cape Town