Western Cape the preferred location for homeowners who switch provinces
The Western Cape is the province that South Africans are moving to if they are switching provinces, according to data from Lightstone Property.
Hayley Ivins-Downes, Managing Executive Real Estate at the property data firm, said: “The Western Cape is the preferred choice for those switching provinces, with the majority of its entrants (3,500) making the journey from Gauteng and 870 arriving from KwaZulu-Natal.”
Around 1,600 homeowners from the six other provinces went to Gauteng, with a similar number going to the Western Cape.
The table below shows the 15 towns receiving the most semigrants and the 15 losing the most.
According to Ivins-Downes, in 2023, 50,000 homeowners participated in the sell-to-buy market.
Gauteng and the Western Cape dominated this market, accounting for 48% and 23% of transactions, which is just over 70% of the market. The remaining seven provinces made up the balance.
Of the homeowners who sell and then buy a new home, 27% of them choose to do so in a different province, an increase from 16% in 2019.
Ivins-Downes said: “Most sell-to-buy homeowners stay in the same province, although the proportion has dipped across eight of the country’s nine provinces when comparing 2018/9 to 2023/4, with just the Western Cape holding its ground (down to 87% from 89%).”
“Repeat buyers staying in the same province fell by 10% in Gauteng, 9% in the Eastern Cape and Free State, 13% in KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga, and 15% in Limpopo.”
According to Lightstone, the Western Cape is the best performer in the sell-to-buy category when it comes to the value of properties.
The Western Cape gets:
– more than 65% of transactions in the R2 million to R3 million price band
– more than 70% of transactions in the R3 million to R4 million and R4 million to R5 million price bands
– more than 85% of transactions in the R5 million and above price bands.
Lightstone shows that 70% of homeowners that move to the Western Cape end up in higher value properties.
IOL Property