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Cape Town homes get scarcer and dearer as wealthy buyers arrive

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Listings in Cape Town have fallen by more than 20% since October 2025, according to Property24, while prices keep rising. Housing is a key issue for voters in the municipal elections held on Wednesday.

Cape Town's population grew by almost 80% to nearly 5 million since the turn of the millennium. Average property prices have risen by about 190% since 2010. Lightstone data shows a home worth more than R6 million takes an average of 49 days to sell in the city, against 67 days nationally.

Foreign buyers drive the top of the market. About 75% of properties bought by individuals for more than R20 million in the first half of 2026 went to people who are not South African. The share is 35% when companies, trusts and South African individuals are included.

Broker Lance Cohen said some houses now sell at prices that are uncomfortably high for him. Ross Levin of Seeff Property Group said annual unit sales on the Atlantic Seaboard and in the City Bowl will fall for the first time in five years, while the super-luxury segment performs at levels not seen before.

Savills forecasts prime residential capital value growth of 4% to 5.9% in Cape Town in the second half of the year. City officials want to apply commercial tariffs to properties used mainly for short-term rentals. About 27,500 housing units are listed on Airbnb in the city.

Key facts

Who
Lance Cohen (broker who runs Lance Real Estate); Steven Bartlett (host of The Diary of a CEO podcast, listed a Bishopscourt mansion); Julie Howard (partner in the private client and tax team at law firm Boodle Hatfield); Ross Levin (licensee of Seeff Property Group's Atlantic Seaboard and City Bowl operation)
When
4 November 2026
Where
Cape Town, Johannesburg, Western Cape
Status
Reported

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