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Johannesburg - The decision by the SA Reserve Bank (Sarb) to leave the repo rate unchanged at 5.75% on Thursday will be welcomed by home buyers, bond originator ooba said.
The decision meant interest rates would remain unchanged for this quarter, with a prime lending rate of 9.25%, it said in a statement.
The Sarb announced that the 12-month growth in mortgage advances to households remained at levels below three percent.
This, along with other economic trends, would see consumer demand for lending remain constrained in the coming months.
Property finance processing manager Kay Geldenhuys said: "The relatively low interest rate environment that continues to prevail is good news for the residential housing market as it gives prospective homebuyers an opportunity to acquire property."
Further, it gave possible homebuyers an opportunity to secure home loan finance at an affordable cost of credit.
The October oobarometer house price index, released this week, showed the average house price rose 1.9% year-on-year to R953 018, from R935 252 a year earlier.
Strong price growth in the first-time buyer's market was also recorded, with a year-on-year increase of seven percent from R711 691 to R761 653.
Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago announced in Pretoria on Thursday that the repo rate would remain unchanged.
"The committee remains of the view that interest rates will have to normalise over time," he told reporters in Pretoria.
"However, given the lower trajectory of headline inflation and the continued weak state of the economy, the MPC has unanimously decided to keep the repurchase rate unchanged at 5.75% per annum at this stage."
The timing of future interest rate increases depended on a range of factors, including inflation expectation changes, the pace of monetary policy normalisation in the United States, and the state of the domestic economy.
