These are the 5 suburbs rich South Africans want to live in

Lightstone’s latest property newsletter revealed South Africa’s top five suburbs for homes priced over R1 million, ranked based on sales numbers and total purchase price for 2023.

According to Lightstone’s latest data, the real estate market in South Africa witnessed some notable changes in the ranking of the top-selling suburbs.

According to the data, Bryanston in Gauteng emerged as the most popular suburb in terms of both volume and total purchase price for both years.

Meanwhile, Sea Point in the Western Cape secured the second spot in 2023, moving up from the third in 2022.

Midstream Estate in Gauteng ranked second in 2022 but slid down to the third spot in 2023.

Additionally, Val de Vie and Fresnaye, which were placed fourth and fifth in the Western Cape in 2022, lost their positions in the top five in 2023.

Instead, Sibaya Coastal Precinct in KwaZulu-Natal took the fourth spot, followed by Sunningdale in the Western Cape, which ranked fifth in 2023.

The table below lists the top five suburbs by the most transfers with purchase prices greater than R1 million.

The current value of South Africa’s residential property market stands at just over R6.8 trillion as of February 2024.

Interestingly, the report noted estates comprise 6.6% of the total properties available but contribute 18.1% of the overall value.

Sectional Title properties, on the other hand, account for 12.9% of the total properties available and contribute to 15.7% of the overall value.

Although Freehold properties comprise the largest residential property sector at 80.5% of the total stock, they only account for 66.3% of the total value.

On the other hand, the average Lightstone value of a property in an Estate was just under R2.7 million in February 2024.

In comparison, the average value of a Sectional Title unit was R1.1 million, while the average value of a Freehold unit was R807,000.

The number of properties sold for less than R500,000 decreased significantly from 58% in 2010 to 31% in 2023.

In contrast, sales in the R500,000 to R1 million range have remained steady at around 25-26%.

Moreover, purchases in the R1 million to R3 million range have significantly increased from 15% in 2010 to 35% in 2023.

Sales in the higher two bands, i.e., R3 million to R5 million and over R5 million, have also increased.

However, the number of residential property transfers in South Africa dropped in 2023 and reached the levels experienced during the Covid-induced slump in 2020.

According to the report, the sales of residential properties reached 276,793 in 2023, which is higher than the 266,639 recorded in 2020.

However, the first two months of 2024 have shown a downward trend in sales. On the other hand, the value of residential property transfers remained stable and ended the year at R241 billion.

Although this is lower than the R345 billion recorded in 2022, it is still higher than the R226 billion recorded in 2020.

The number of transfer volumes and their value during the first two months of 2024 were slightly lower compared to the same period in 2023, which was also lower than the 2022 numbers.

March has historically been a better month for transfer volumes and value in both 2022 and 2023, so it will be interesting to see if the trend continues in 2024.

Read: Sectional titles and complexes are booming in South Africa