Cape Town - Banking and property experts say the semigration trend which has seen skilled and higher income households move most notably in the direction of the Western Cape are driving Cape Town property sales.
At the same time data from PropStats, the online sales database designed for estate agents, shows that in 2021 the average time a house spent on the market in 2021 was 171 days. This has dropped to 71 days in 2022 for homes across all price bands.
Lew Geffen Sotheby’s International Realty estate agent Claude McKirby said Cape Town’s Southern Suburbs were no exception to the post-pandemic pent-up demand.
McKirby said: “We also saw the revival of semigration in 2021 which has accelerated this year to become a strong market driver along with a steady demand from local buyers looking for spacious family homes near good schools and amenities.”
He said the Southern Suburbs area had long been a popular choice as it offered numerous compelling lifestyle drawcards.
Seeff Property Group agent Ross Levin said the Atlantic Seaboard and City Bowl luxury property markets which had performed well in 2021 had done even better this year due to semigration.
He said sales for the first seven months of 2022 were over R5 billion and for the first time in years, estate agents were seeing property stock in short supply, even in high-end areas such as Fresnaye, Bantry Bay and Camps Bay.
“To put this into perspective, the entire 2021-year only yielded sales of just over R6.6b. Additionally, trophy homes sales above R20 million is also well ahead of last year and already stands at over R1.64b which exceeds the whole of 2021.”
Property sector strategist at FNB, John Loos, said the semigration trend had led to the expectation that the Western Cape economy would at some point begin to outperform the rest of the country.
He said this was because South Africa’s modern services dominated economy was heavily dependent on skilled labour, and the Western Cape was best at attracting and retaining such people.