The Western Cape’s average property sales price for the first quarter of this year was R3,357,917.
This is according to the Average REMAX Sales Price, putting it at 72.1% higher than the average of R1,951,230 across the rest of South Africa.
In this context, many buyers are increasingly looking beyond the country’s most expensive province, as evident in the top searched suburbs.
Top searched suburbs
Online search behaviour on remax.co.za further reflects changing buyer preferences:
1. Morningside, Gauteng
2. Bryanston, Gauteng
3. La Lucia, KwaZulu Natal
4. Fourways, Gauteng
5. Durban North, KwaZulu Natal
Earlier this month, the Development Action Group’s DAG’s Programme Director, Helen Rourke, joined Cape Town’s Executive Deputy Mayor, Eddie Andrews and property experts David Cohen and Colin Strumpher for a panel discussion hosted by the Western Cape Property Development Forum (WCPDF) to discuss affordability in the city and the greater Western Cape.
The structural exclusion of the majority of South Africans
The event began by laying out a stark contrast: the national average property price is R1.6 million, yet in the Western Cape it rises to R2.3 million, creating one of the steepest barriers to entry nationwide.
DAG said these are not abstract statistics; they reflect the structural exclusion of the majority of South Africans from the province’s formal property market
DAG said several themes from the panel emerged.
First, affordability is a systemic challenge that cannot be reduced to property prices alone but is linked to infrastructure that is not keeping pace, poor public transit networks and insufficient densification in parts of the city.
Second, focusing only on building entirely new housing stock will not solve this crisis on its own.
Lowering the cost of existing housing and unlocking the potential value in secondary property market transactions must be part of the picture.
Third, and perhaps most importantly, there remains an endemic tendency to seek silver-bullet solutions to a crisis that requires the opposite: a variety of interventions tailored to the Western Cape context.
The event closed with an understanding that cities are ever-evolving organisms. The sector, state, civil society, and private developers need to be genuinely responsive to that reality together, rather than waiting for a single solution, DAG said.
Gauteng is the country’s most active housing market by volume in Q1
This changing buyer behaviour is reflected in national deeds office data, which shows Gauteng accounting for 50.8% of all property transfers during the quarter, making it the country’s most active housing market by volume, says Adrian Goslett, the CEO and Regional Director of REMAX Southern Africa.
He says the province’s strong performance played a significant role in driving SA’s overall 7.47% increase in units sold, thereby suggesting that buyers are increasingly gravitating towards regions that offer greater affordability and value.
SA’s property market was shaped by both resilience and shifting dynamics, in the first quarter of this year.
According to the Remax National Housing Report Q1 2026, while home prices continued to climb to record highs across the country, ongoing geopolitical uncertainty placed added strain on affordability.
At the same time, new data points to a shift in market activity, with Gauteng gaining momentum as the Western Cape’s dominance continues to soften, the report shows.
“While the property market entered 2026 on a strong footing, geopolitical tensions created a more challenging economic environment as the quarter progressed,” says Goslett.
“Rising uncertainty placed pressure on inflation expectations worldwide, prompting central banks, including the South African Reserve Bank, to adopt a more cautious approach towards the middle of the year.”
He adds that this sentiment is echoed in the March 2026 BetterBond Property Brief:
“During the first two months of 2026, average house prices reached a milestone, with positive real increases recorded for both first-time buyers (FTBs) and repeat buyers through BetterBond’s origination services…Unfortunately, the monetary policy authorities paused the rate-cutting cycle in their January meeting…due to the double-edged inflationary effect of the higher oil price and the depreciation of the rand.”
Affordability has become an even greater priority for buyers
Against this backdrop, Goslett notes that affordability has become an even greater priority for buyers. He says with house prices in the Western Cape sitting at nearly double those of other provinces in SA, many buyers appear to be broadening their search to more affordable regions where they can find better value for money.
This has contributed to renewed interest in markets such as Gauteng, where comparatively lower prices continue to support demand, he adds.
Recently, MC Du Toit, CEO at BidX1 South Africa said in areas such as the Atlantic Seaboard and other prime parts of the Western Cape, purchasing a frontline property has become prohibitively expensive for most buyers.
Opportunities at those price levels are simply out of reach for many, he said then.
He said with the Southern Cape gaining strong momentum, they were seeing increasing numbers of buyers moving toward the region as lifestyle demand and semigration continue to drive interest.
“Properties like this still offer buyers the rare chance to secure frontline coastal real estate in a region that is rapidly growing in popularity. As demand continues to shift toward the Southern Cape, opportunities of this nature may not remain accessible for long,” Du Toit warned.
Affordability challenges and geopolitical uncertainty have created a more complex operating environment.
“Although affordability challenges and geopolitical uncertainty have created a more complex operating environment, the underlying demand for property remains strong. The first quarter’s results suggest that South Africa’s property market is not slowing down but rather evolving, and that adaptability will be a defining feature of the market in the months ahead,” concludes Goslett.
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