“If interest rates rise or there is a change in their personal financial position, they are exposed.”
First-time buyers with little equity in their homes or are upwardly mobile and middle management employees who have enjoyed the short-term benefits of such positions and racked up high levels of debt, can also come under pressure when there is a change in the economic climate, she says.
Properties in the lower- to mid-priced brackets – about R800 000 to R2 million – are generally those coming on to the market as a result of affordability struggles, says Jawitz’ Herschel Jawitz.