What happens to your bond if the repo rate stays the same?
Your repayment does not move. Almost every South African home loan is variable-rate, priced at prime plus or minus a margin, and prime only changes when the SARB's Monetary Policy Committee changes the repo rate. If the committee holds repo at 7.25% on 19 November 2026, prime stays 10.75%, your margin stays the same, and your monthly instalment stays exactly what it is today — bond.co.za works through the hold, hike and cut scenarios below.
A hold is not a non-event, though. It fixes your instalment for another six weeks, keeps the affordability ceiling banks apply where it is, and — after two hikes in 2026 — it would confirm that prime is likely near its peak. For a household budget, that certainty has value even though no rand amount changes.
Why does your repayment follow the repo rate?
The chain is short and mechanical. The SARB sets the repo rate — currently 7.25%. The commercial banks set prime off it — currently 10.75%, a spread of about 3.5 percentage points — and they move prime in lockstep with repo, usually the same day. Your bond is priced at prime plus or minus a margin set by your bank's credit assessment. So repo moves, prime follows, your instalment follows; repo holds, and all three stay put. Per the SARB's September 2026 MPC statement, the current levels took effect on 25 September 2026 after a unanimous 25 basis point hike — the second of 2026.
What are the three outcomes for the 19 November 2026 decision?
The committee meets for the last time in 2026 on 19 November 2026, and the statement lands at approximately 15:00 SAST. Three outcomes are possible, and each one does something different to a variable bond. bond.co.za's calculation, at prime with no margin over 20 years:
| Bond size | Hold at 10.75% | Hike to 11.00% | + / month | Cut to 10.50% | − / month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R 1 000 000 | R 10 152 | R 10 322 | +R 170 | R 9 984 | −R 168 |
| R 1 500 000 | R 15 228 | R 15 483 | +R 254 | R 14 976 | −R 253 |
| R 2 000 000 | R 20 305 | R 20 644 | +R 339 | R 19 968 | −R 337 |
| R 2 500 000 | R 25 381 | R 25 805 | +R 424 | R 24 959 | −R 421 |
Read the first two columns as your budget: if the committee holds, the "Hold at 10.75%" column is your December instalment, unchanged. The hike and cut columns bracket the upside surprise — a R 254-a-month swing on R1.5 million either way, which is why the hold scenarios matter most for what you can afford. These figures assume prime with no margin; your actual rate may differ based on your credit profile, deposit and loan-to-value. Use the bond repayment calculator to run the scenarios at your own rate.
Does a hold mean your rate is fixed?
No — a hold and a fixed rate are different animals. A variable-rate bond floats with prime, so the next MPC move, in January or beyond, passes straight through to your instalment. A fixed-rate deal locks your rate for a set term and ignores the MPC entirely — usually at a premium to the prevailing variable rate. If you fixed two years ago, a hold does nothing for you; you re-set to whatever prime is when the fixed period ends. The full trade-offs are in our fixed vs variable comparison.
It also does not mean your margin is permanent. Offers across the major banks typically land between prime −1.0% and prime +2.0% (illustrative band, per ooba's rate-concession reporting), so two borrowers at the same prime can pay materially different rates. A hold in the repo rate never improves a bad margin — only negotiating, or switching, does.
What should you do while the repo rate holds?
A hold is the window to work on your rate instead of waiting on the MPC. The average rate concession achieved across originator-submitted applications was 0.67 percentage points below prime (ooba Home Loans, as at 3 October 2026) — worth about R 674 a month on a R1.5 million bond, or roughly three times what a single 25bp cut would save. A bond originator submits your application to multiple banks at once, and the competition is where the concession comes from. To apply for pre-approval or compare offers, the process takes about 10 minutes online.
If you are buying now, a pre-approval certificate locks what you qualify for at today's 10.75% prime and is typically valid for 90 days — long enough to span the 19 November 2026 decision and whatever follows it. Under the National Credit Act, banks test affordability against gross monthly income, with the rule of thumb that the instalment should stay near or below 30% of it; a hold keeps that ceiling exactly where it is. Check your qualifying amount with the home loan affordability calculator, and if you hold a variable bond, any payment above the minimum during a stable-rate stretch goes straight off capital.
(Published 11 November 2026. Rate figures verified against the SARB September 2026 MPC statement. Concession and rate-band figures per ooba Home Loans, 3 October 2026. Repayment examples: 20-year term at prime, no margin — your actual rate may differ.)