The decision by the South African Reserve Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee to retain the repo rate at 7% brought some good news, thus leaving the prime interest rate unchanged at 10.5%, now for the past year. Some good news also came in the form of a lower inflation rate at 5.3% (down from 6.1% in March).

On the downside, we have seen further downgrades by Moody’s as the country continues to grapple with economic and political instability. With 2 consecutive quarters of negative growth, we officially find ourselves in recession. Further to this, we've seen some deterioration in business confidence and a knock-on effect to the property market with declining demand and house prices under pressure.

That said, the Cape property market continues to be the stand out performer with FNB also recently pronouncing ...