What a R150 million house looks like in South Africa: Sandton vs Cape Town
Despite current economic headwinds putting serious strain on consumers’ pockets, some properties are still on the market for over R100 million in South Africa.
Notably, the four most expensive properties currently on the market in South Africa are all based in the Johannesburg or Cape Town area.
Global real estate services provider, Savills, ranked Cape Town fifth in its World Cities Prime Residential Index, which looks at the factors of prime capital value growth forecast for 2023 versus the capital growth value in 2022. The index also looks at the prime capital value per square foot as of December 2022.
Although Savill’s index reported that most prime residential markets would see a slowdown in 2023, Cape Town, with capital value growth of 5.1% in 2022, is expected to see capital value growth of between 2% and 3.9% in 2023.
The City only ranked below Dubai, Singapore, Miami and Milan; and was joined by Rome, Kuala Lumpur, Hangzhou, Madrid, and Barcelona in the top ten.
“Over decades, Cape Town has continued to feature on the global stage as a world-class city which garners attention from astute international and local investors in prime residential real estate,” said Andrew Golding, chief executive of the Pam Golding Property group.
Despite Cape Town often being seen as the jewel in South Africa’s crown for international investment, Johannesburg is actually the preferred destination for international investors.
According to 2021 data, 9,495 foreigners bought property in South Africa, and the top three areas were all in Gauteng – Johannesburg (1024), Sandton (890) and Pretoria (776), and Cape Town was in fourth place (686). All the other areas in the top ten were in the Western Cape and Gauteng.
Although the property market is enjoying record sales – especially in the Western Cape, property specialist and chairman of the Seeff Property Group, Samuel Seeff, said that there are concerns that wealth is leaving the country as investors look for better-run property markets.
Investors are spending less in South Africa as many look offshore, with the top value of properties being sold showing a slowdown and even stagnation in some areas.
Therefore, it might be challenging for the following properties to be sold:
All property prices were acquired via Property24. Properties were verified on the relevant realtor’s website. Properties could not be proposed developments and had to have already been built. Properties with a Price on Application (POA) were also excluded, as POAs are usually meant to prevent the public from knowing the price of a property.
Read: Where the super rich spend their time in South Africa
