Cape’s luxury mansions attracting foreign buyers
FOREIGN buyers and Gautengers are snapping up R40-million-plus Cape properties despite what estate agents are calling a “weak luxury market”.
The chairperson of the Seeff Property Group, Samuel Seeff, said the company achieved a record R1.7 billion in sales in March, the highest in the group’s 57-year history.
Seeff said: “We have seen increased activity from foreign buyers at the high-end price levels and clinched the R45m sale of a penthouse at the Waterfront to a German buyer, the highest price achieved here in close to eight years.
“Overall sales to foreign buyers across Cape Town’s Atlantic Seaboard and City Bowl are a whopping 36% higher compared with 2019, and are the highest in the past three years. Almost one-third of all high-value sales have been to foreign buyers who have paid some of the highest prices,” Seeff said.
He said the company was in the process of concluding an even higher value sale in Plettenberg Bay to a buyer from the UK, which would be one of the highest prices achieved for residential property in the town.
This follows a recent R36m sale to a United Arab Emirates buyer in Fresnaye, several sales in Camps Bay, and two R20m-plus sales in Constantia Upper to buyers from Zimbabwe and Malawi, respectively.
RE/MAX Southern Africa chief executive Adrian Goslett said the Cape’s luxury market had always held a wide appeal, attracting international buyers and local investors alike.
“More recently, as a result of the changes brought about by Covid-19, the area has gained increased popularity among Joburg buyers who are drawn to the safe, active outdoor lifestyle Cape Town has to offer.”
RE/MAX Living estate agent Talitha Finkay said that many of her buyers for properties in the Tamboerskloof and Camps Bay areas were from Gauteng.
Meanwhile, Cape Town’s lifestyle is drawing interest from remote workers from across the world.
The City’s municipal bosses and economic agencies such as Cape Town Tourism have recently upped the ante to get the word out to both the international and domestic markets that the metro is open for business.
Both organisations have partnered to promote the Digital Nomad Initiative in a bid to attract remote workers. They are also lobbying the South African government to introduce a “Remote Working Visa”.