Time on market, listing price and selling price are three important variables in the real estate market, and a fourth would be growth in listing and selling prices. Collectively, the variables tell a story of the health, or otherwise, of the residential market.
Time on market and listing price data used in this report comes from data which represents approximately half of all residential sales, while the selling price data is from Deeds Office records. We have not considered the growth of house prices in this report.
Deals 2015-2023
Lightstone analysed the days between listing and sale of property in the years 2015 to 2023, and perhaps the most immediate observation is that the gap between the City of Cape Town and City of Johannesburg in 2023 was widening again.
Loadshedding, SOE failures and poor economic activity negatively disrupted the property market in 2019, when time on the market was the highest in the period under review at between 110 and 120 days.
The norm in the years 2017-2018, and 2020-2022 had been between around 60-80 days for Cape Town, and between 70-90 days for Johannesburg. By the end of 2023, though, Johannesburg was nudging 100 days while Cape Town was dropping below 80. The national average was 90. The data continues to signal the strength of Cape Town (and the Western Cape) over Johannesburg (and Gauteng) in the market.
Days between listing and purchase
Best time to list
Houses listed in January spent just 75 days on average on the market, in the years 2015-2023. January listings also had the best chance of achieving the listing price, at 85% (on average, a property listed at R2m sold for R1.7m). The next best month for both least time on market and achieving listing price was July.
While January and July listings get the best price to asking price ratio, houses listed in November and December (see graph below) spend most time on market at nearer 90 days (see graph below).
Average time on market per listing month: 2015 – 2023
The graphs below demonstrate how time on market differs from one town to the next over the period 2015-2023.
Of the four cities we have evaluated, listed houses spent the least time on market in Nelson Mandela Bay and the most in Johannesburg, sandwiching Cape Town and Buffalo City.
While time on the market differed across the four cities, the pattern was largely the same, with January listings spending less time on the market, while November and December were at the high end.
Houses listed in Nelson Mandela Bay in January took just 55 days to sell, compared to 59 in Buffalo City, 65 in Cape Town and 80 in Johannesburg, where listing a house in April could shave a day off the time on the market!
Days on market – City of Cape Town
Days on market – City of Johannesburg
Days on market – Nelson Mandela Bay
Days on market – Buffalo City
Insights into 2024
Approximately 63% of houses which were sold in 2024 achieved 90% or more of their listed price, while 7% were bought at below 75% of the asking price.
Ratio of price paid as a percentage of listed price – 2024 sales
Nearly 60% of houses on the market in 2024 sold within three months of being listed – with nearly 30% of houses sold within a month, 17% within two months and 13% in three months.
Time on market
Near but far
Time on market within a city is also a variable which changes from suburb to suburb. We have looked at time on market in Cape Town over 2024, and it offers interesting insights.
Fish Hoek and Muizenberg are near neighbours along the False Bay coast, yet the time it took, on average, to sell a house in each of the suburbs in 2024 was worlds apart.
Houses in Fish Hoek took just under 53 days on market to sell (see graph below), while sellers in nearby Muizenburg took just over 100 days. Despite the difference, though, both suburbs (Fish Hoek – 93%, Muizenberg – 94%) recorded sales close to the listing price.
Areas in City of Cape Town
Noordhoek struggled on both counts, with the second longest time on market following listing and sales were, on average, at 85% of the listing price.
