The decision by the South African Reserve Bank Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to cut interest rates by 25-basis-points has been welcomed by High Street Auction co director, Greg Dart.

This move – together with the setting of a new inflation target of 3% and an upbeat 2025 Mid-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) tabled in Parliament last week – will bring the year to an end on a positive note and pave the way for growth during 2026, he says.

Dart believes that, although not a large drop in of itself, the interest rate cut will continue to compound the advances that have accrued since the Reserve Bank began cutting interest rates in September 2024. With cuts now reaching the 150-basis point mark, he believes that this could continue to have a positive impact on the entire property sector.

This is underscored by current forecasts of real GDP growth of 1.2 per cent for 2025 (more than double that during 2024) and a moderately positive outlook for the medium term with GDP expected to grow by an average 1.8 per cent between 2026 and 2028.

The new 3% inflation band is expected to lock-in lower interest rates over time. However, Dart believes that, with inflation expected to remain above this at 3.5% during December 2025 and even climb a little higher as beginning-of-year service increases kick in, there might be an interim halt in rates cuts at least until the middle of 2026.

Nevertheless, he says the positive sentiment in the auction space echoes the strengthened optimism amongst property brokers that was expressed in First National Bank’s Property Sales Activity Survey for the third quarter of 2025.

“As our economy continues to reset in the wake of structural reforms and promised infrastructure development begins to manifest, we are certain that activity within the property and auction spaces will continue and that a number of good deals will emerge and be snapped up by a pool of enthusiastic investors who will see growing opportunities going forward,” he says.

Ends.