{"id":175371,"date":"2017-05-28T15:00:12","date_gmt":"2017-05-28T13:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=175371"},"modified":"2017-05-26T16:39:48","modified_gmt":"2017-05-26T14:39:48","slug":"the-cost-of-moving-to-cape-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/175371\/the-cost-of-moving-to-cape-town\/","title":{"rendered":"The cost of moving to Cape Town"},"content":{"rendered":"

Data published by FNB, suggests that 56% of people looking to leave Gauteng end up in the Western Cape – but the extra expenses and having to downscale are big factors to consider, according to\u00a0PropertyFox\u2019s David Gibbons.<\/p>\n

“Many Gautengers dream of leaving their busy life in the big smoke and setting up a new slower life in beautiful Cape Town. Unfortunately a lot of these dreams never come true because there is a common belief that the drop in income and property size will be too big,” said Gibbons.<\/p>\n

“They see themselves moving from a four-bed home with a pool to a two-bed flat with a fan. But the truth is that if they plan well and do their research right, a shift to the coast can become a reality.”<\/p>\n

Gibbons noted that while the the trend towards ‘semigration’ is not new, there are no signs of it slowing down.<\/p>\n

“In 2016,\u00a0Cape Talk<\/a>\u00a0reported that 20-30% of all buyer enquiries in the Western Cape stem from Pretoria and Johannesburg residents looking to move,” said Gibbons.<\/p>\n

Additionally, a 2017 FNB\u00a0Repeat Home Buyer Study found the Western Cape\u2019s repeat buyer net inflow makes up a as much as 17.4% of the province\u2019s total repeat buys.<\/p>\n

“The same study reported that 56.2% of Gauteng\u2019s \u2018semigrants\u2019 opt to relocate to the Mother City. The question of why has been answered extensively \u2013 it\u2019s mostly linked to a long-term investment in lifestyle.”<\/p>\n

\n

Practical examples<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“If you\u2019ve been living in sprawling comfort in the suburbs of Jozi and want to trade for a spot right in the heart of Cape Town, you\u2019ll need to downscale, as the following comparison shows,” said Gibbons using two homes currently listed on PropertyFox.<\/p>\n

R2.85 million home in Buccleuch vs R2.8 million home in Vredehoek<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Johannesburg (Buccleuch)<\/th>\nCape Town (Vredehoek)<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
A house<\/td>\nA flat<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3 bedrooms<\/td>\n2 bedrooms<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3 bathrooms<\/td>\n1.5 bedrooms<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2 receptions room<\/td>\n2 reception rooms<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1 study<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4 Garages<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2 flatlets<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1 555 square metres<\/td>\n80 square metres<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
R1 300 rates bill<\/td>\nR1 600 rates bill<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
–<\/td>\nR860 levy<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

“However, if you\u2019re looking to trade suburban bliss upcountry for suburban bliss in the Mother City, the properties are more evenly matched. Although you\u2019ll get less space in Cape Town, in terms of the key aspects like bedrooms and bathrooms, these two properties are quite evenly matched.”<\/p>\n

R4 million home in Greenstone hill vs R3.7 million home in Rondebosch<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Johannesburg (Buccleuch)<\/th>\nCape Town (Vredehoek)<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
A house<\/td>\nA house<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3 bedrooms<\/td>\n3 bedrooms<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2.5 bathrooms<\/td>\n2 bathrooms<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3 reception rooms<\/td>\n2 reception rooms<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2 garages<\/td>\n1 garage<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
A study<\/td>\n1 flatlet<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Domestic quarters<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
509 square metres<\/td>\n308 square metres<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Tips for semigrating\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Identify the phase of life you\u2019re in<\/strong><\/h3>\n

“Initially semigration was very much comprised of mid- to high-income established career people opting to purchase property in Cape Town as a retirement investment. However,Moneyweb<\/a>\u00a0notes that the trend has spread to young families, who are primarily driven by the wealth of school prospects in the Cape,” said Gibbons.<\/p>\n

A 2016 study by\u00a0Adzuna<\/a>\u00a0shows that Johannesburg salaries (average annual salary: R427, 892) are a staggering 18% higher than Cape Town salaries (average annual salary: R352, 089), with far more jobs advertised at the time the research was conducted.<\/p>\n

The link between high demand and property prices<\/strong><\/h3>\n

It\u2019s a common myth that a substantial sum of money will buy you a mansion in Joburg and a broom closet in the Mother City \u2013 as with most real estate factors, it depends\u00a0where\u00a0in Joburg and\u00a0where\u00a0in Cape Town. Location, as per usual, is everything.<\/p>\n

However, it\u2019s an indisputable fact that the Western Cape\u2019s unrelenting popularity is driving up property prices. With 56% of the bonds that Gauteng residents registered last year being for properties in the Western Cape, prices are being pushed up far beyond inflation.<\/p>\n

Appreciate the difference between buying and renting<\/strong><\/h3>\n

While Cape Town has high property prices, it has a significant number of low-end rentals. In contrast, Johannesburg property prices are lower, but there\u2019s demand for high-end rentals.<\/p>\n

According to Gibbons, a family home in Sandton will cost you R70,000 to R80,000 to rent, while its Sea Point equivalent will be R40,000. However, to buy that Sea Point home would be vastly more expensive than to purchase its Joburg equal.<\/p>\n

\n

Read:\u00a0Bad news for coastal town property prices in SA<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FNB data suggests that more than half of people looking to leave Gauteng end up in the Western Cape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":135749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[76,26],"class_list":["post-175371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-fnb","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175371"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176747,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175371\/revisions\/176747"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}