JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African median house prices fell by 13.2 percent year-on-year in May, with new tougher credit laws and high interest rates cutting demand, a survey showed on Monday. Sponsors Standard Bank said the decline in prices may have been overstated by high base effects due to abnormally high activity during the same month last year, but the downward trend still showed declining affordability on high interest rates. Its monthly property gauge showed the South African median house price fell to 520,000 rand from 530,000 rand in April and 599,000 rand in May 2007. The five-month moving average growth rate was -5.5 percent. "The Standard Bank median house price recorded negative year-on-year growth for the third consecutive month in May," it said in a statement. South Africa's central bank has raised its repo rate by 450 basis points to 11.5 percent since June 2006, hitting demand as consumers struggle amid high debt. While spending has cooled, inflation remains on the boil and rates are widely expected to rise again next week. "Another interest rate increase, which in our view is a strong possibility, will mean that monthly mortgage instalments will be 36 percent more than they were when the current bout of interest rate increases commenced," Standard Bank said. This could lead to even softer house price growth further reduction in the volume of new mortgages granted and registered and lead to even softer house price growth, it said. | 
