Is South Africa’s spectacular house price bounce, which started in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, coming to a screeching halt? There are signs that the rally is coming to an end, judging from data released on Wednesday, 9 June 2021 by the team of property economists at FNB. According to the commercial bank, average house price growth in South Africa fell in May to 4.1% from 4.6% in April. Although the month-on-month decline is marginal (-0.5%) and doesn’t suggest that house prices are starting to fall: it is the first time in 11 months that price growth has fallen. The housing market has been a bright spot for a pandemic-hit economy as house prices grew every month in 2020 and the first four months of 2021 — bucking the downward spiral seen in most other sectors of the economy.