The South African Reserve Bank’s decision to pause interest rate cuts today did not come as a surprise for property expert Greg Dart, a director at the High Street Auction Company. This week’s revelation that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) decreased by 0,1% between July and August, with four of thirteen categories in the inflation basket and household equipment and routine maintenance dipping, sparked some optimism about an interest rate cut. However, this was not to be and businesses continue to make adjustments to counter broader financial risk, Dart points out. In addition, the MPC continues to target CPI at a conservative 3% rather than the broader 3% to 6% that has prevailed up until now. With GDP growth still lacklustre at 0.8% during the second quarter of this year, an expected spike in unemployment given the shutdown of major steel and tyre manufacturing industries and retrenchments at automotive manufacturers as well as low consumer demand and business confidence, many companies continue to free up liquidity through the sale of non-core assets. Investors that are less dependent on interest rate fluctuations and who are looking to diversify their portfolios away from the stock market and more conventional investment vehicles that are still hypersensitive to ongoing global geopolitical tensions and disruptive tariffs, would do well to leverage the auction platform to pick out good investment opportunities, according to Dart. He says that location is now more important than ever for investment, with key hubs such as the Western Cape and parts of KwaZulu-Natal showing early signs of recovery and representing good options. This will position investors – especially those in the logistics and freight sectors and the broader industrial arena – to benefit should the much-anticipated trade normalisation between South Africa and the US emerge. This week the Federal Reserve cut the key American interest rate by 0.25 percentage points for the first time this year. The South African government is continuing its attempts to normalise trade relationships with the Trump administration. Ends.