Western Cape property boom: Demand for homes on the West Coast just keeps climbing
Small towns in the Western Cape are booming when it comes to property sales as more and more people are looking to move to smaller coastal areas.
According to the Seeff Property Group, West Coast towns and villages are no longer just for holidays and retirement.
The areas of Langebaan, Yzerfontein, St Helena Bay and Elands Bay have seen a strong shift in sales activities during the market boom of 2021/2022.
Seeff noted that the migration of wealth to the West Coast is seeing prices of up to R8 million being paid for luxury homes in Langebaan.
According to Lightstone data, the Langebaan property market has seen transactions of over R1.3 billion from September 2023 to September 2024.
Seeff found that people who have to work or do business in Saldanha and Vredenburg, as well as those who come to the West Coast for contracts and other company-related matters are choosing to stay in Langebaan.
The fact that Langebaan is only a two-hour drive from Cape Town is a plus for tourists and therefore is a popular destination for Capetonians who own homes in the area, and may rent it out on platforms like Airbnb.
Research from Lightstone revealed that West Coast property markets experienced a significant boom during 2021/2022, leading to substantial growth in median prices over the past five years.
In areas like Yzerfontein and Paternoster, prices have doubled, while locations such as Langebaan, Malmesbury, and St Helena saw a marked increase. The data found that most towns experienced growth between 60% to high as 196% over the last ten years.
Price growth over 5 and 10 years
Hout Bay is also killing it
The West Coast is booming, but according to Propstats data, so is Hout Bay. It seems that Hout Bay’s property value is soaring when compared to the rest of the country.
The average home price growth across the country is now below 1%, according to the latest data from the First National Bank House Price Index.
But recent sales in Hout Bay show that the overall average selling price in the area now stands at around R5.1 million. The location has picked up investors over the last few years due to semigration and the rise in remote work, according to data from Revo Property.
Hout Bay’s property value has increased by 37% since 2019. This represented an annual growth of around 6.7% per annum, well above the average consumer price index (CPI) rate, now at 4.6%.
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