March house sales a warning of things to come

March house sales a warning of things to come
Brent Melville
Home sales during March foreshadow the larger shock to come in the housing market as a result of the covid-19 shut down, with sales down 5 percent on the comparable numbers for March 2019. On a seasonally adjusted basis, month on month sales were 14 percent lower - largely attributed to the six days of March the country was in lock down.The latest data from the Real Estate Institute show that up to the covid-19 restrictions, which effectively pressed pause on most housing transactions, house inflation was up by 9.3 percent year-on-year to...

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Staff reporters 21 Oct 2025