Here’s what a R50 million home looks like in Joburg, Pretoria, and Cape Town

While South Africa’s economy continued to feel the effects of the pandemic in 2021, the country’s residential property market moved from strength to strength, with soaring sales, levelling prices, booming rentals, growth in foreign investment, and a semigration surge.

This is according to Alexa Horne, managing director of Dogon Group Properties, who said that the industry rallied following a spate of interest rates cuts, and has enjoyed robust sales throughout the year, despite the many financial challenges created by the Covid pandemic.

Low interest rates added further allure to the many well-priced properties on the market in 2021, she said.

“The onset of Covid saw the asking prices for homes flattening out to more realistic levels after a period of exponential growth – and there were great deals to be found,” said Horne. “Initially we were seeing many first-time home buyers taking advantage of these favourable conditions, however, we then experienced a steady increase of buyers across the board in all price brackets.”

Another factor driving sales was a surge in semigration this year, particularly following the unrest in July, with many buyers relocating to Cape Town from Gauteng and Kwazulu Natal, she said.

“Excitingly, there have also been many foreign buyers purchasing property in Cape Town through 2021,” said Horne.

Among the sales made this year by the ZIYANDA Real Estate team are some stand-out deals such as a home in Kloof Road that sold for R72.5 million. Two homes in Ocean View Drive sold for R62 million and R30 million respectively, and an apartment at the V&A Waterfront sold for R31.2 million.

ZIYANDA Real Estate said that sales in 2021 increased in terms of turnover and volumes across all price bands, including the luxury homes market from R10 million upwards which has experienced a resurgence.

The group said it concluded sales transactions for a range of high-end residential property achieving prices significantly in excess of R50 million, including two in Clifton on the Cape’s Atlantic Seaboard.

Other top-end sales include a penthouse sold for R33 million in Steyn City, as well as homes sold in Sandhurst, Johannesburg and Constantia in Cape Town for R35 million and two sales concluded in Sandhurst for R30 million, plus homes in Somerset West for R32 million and R25 million and four student houses sold between R17 million and R42 million in Stellenbosch.

“Sales to international buyers have surprisingly remained steady over the past two years and during the past 12-18 months we’ve also seen a resurgence in demand, with sales concluded to a wide range of purchasers from the UK, Zimbabwe, Germany, USA, Botswana, Netherlands, Nigeria, Switzerland, France, British Virgin Islands among others globally – including from the rest of the African continent,” it said.

Below are some of the properties available around R50 million in each major province in the country.