Bloody good question Tradm8 - I've been looking into this as...

Bloody good question Tradm8 - I've been looking into this as well and I'm a little too young to know what happened

Here's a couple of interesting articles I've found:
1. Standard Bank Home Loan rate & Inflation
2. Why relaxing inflation targets would be bad for investors

They don't really give you a full explanation of what happened, but they do provide a bit more information on how it all works and what happens when inflation kicks in.

This chart shows the house price index & you can see the dip & then the flatline of housing during the 80s and 90s:


Finally if you're after an overview of what inflation is (in dummy terms which is why I needed it!) have a look at Inflation and Its Impact on Investments

Like I said I'm young and don't really know what I'm talking about so hopefully some of the older generation on here can provide a little more insight?