Western Cape Real Estate Overview

For many people, the Western Cape is synonymous with Table Mountain, the highly cosmopolitan Mother City of Cape Town comprising the City Bowl itself, the vast Northern Suburbs around Durbanville and Bellville, the ever-expanding Western Seaboard / Table Bay area, the exclusive Southern Suburbs and the country’s most expensive property belt, the glittering Atlantic Seaboard.
 
However, the vast province also contains the fishing villages of the West Coast, the rolling wheatfields of the Swartland, the mountains and vineyards and fruit farms of the Boland and Overberg areas, the olive and sheep farms of the Klein Karoo and the impossibly picturesque and increasingly renowned Garden Route running along the south coast.
 
West Coast property, boasting some of SA’s best sailing waters, has become popular in recent years among investors and Capetonians seeking holiday homes and weekend getaways and has experienced large scale property development around villages and small towns such as Yzerfontein, Langebaan, Saldanha and Vredenburg.
 
On the southern coast, Mossel Bay, Knysna and Plettenberg Bay are major tourist destinations and house many holiday homes, as well as a vast array of waterfront properties. The area between Knysna and George has also become an international golfing destination and boasts some of the country’s top golf courses and most expensive golf estate homes, while Plettenberg Bay is attracting the polo set with purpose-built equestrian estates.
 
Inland from Cape Town are the Boland and Overberg regions famous for their wines, fruit and dairy products – and for the historical delights of towns such as Stellenbosch, Paarl, Wellington, Worcester and Robertson. Although originally agricultural hubs, many of these towns have become centres of education excellence, housing top schools and universities, and many have become sought-after addresses for city dwellers keen to migrate to the country. Property prices in these regions have risen as a result, and extensive development of everything from sectional title flats to grand estates and retirement villages has followed.
 
Other property hotspots in the province include Somerset West, a Helderberg town increasingly popular with foreign investors; the area around Hermanus, known as the whale-watching capital of the world; and the hot-springs towns of Caledon and Montagu.
 
More on property in Cape Town...