Private sector building approvals weakened during May 2026, with approved floor area declining 13.8% year-on-year, driven largely by significant declines in the Western Cape and Gauteng, South Africa’s two largest building markets. While higher interest rates following the May SARB repo rate increase are likely to have added pressure to development activity, the slowdown was far from uniform. Strong growth in Mpumalanga, the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal highlights an increasingly uneven market, where improving conditions in several smaller provinces continue to be outweighed by weakness in the larger markets. This trend is also evident over the longer term, with the national 12-month moving annual total declining 2.9% year-on-year. Although provinces such as the Free State, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal continue to gain momentum, sustained softness in the Western Cape and Gauteng remains the primary drag on overall private sector building activity.
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Building Plans Approved by Province and Type January 1994 – May 2026
