{"id":835190,"date":"2025-08-16T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=835190"},"modified":"2025-08-15T15:28:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T13:28:17","slug":"major-semigration-shift-hitting-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/property\/835190\/major-semigration-shift-hitting-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Major semigration shift hitting South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Although the Western Cape is often seen as the new semigration hotspot, it is starting to lose its shine as Gauteng benefits from an end to work-from-home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to its better governance, growing job opportunities and beautiful scenery, the Western Cape has seen an influx of South Africans in recent years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was due to the explosion of work-from-home jobs during the Covid-19 pandemic, where workers had greater flexibility in where they could live to do their jobs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The popularity of the Western Cape can be seen in the latest Wise Move<\/a> Report, which noted that the province was the largest winner in inter-provincial migration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

32.4% of all inter-provincial moves headed to the Western Cape, while it only contributed 15.1% to the nation’s total out-migration to a different province.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gauteng is still the largest province for inter-provincial migration, accounting for 60.3% of all intra-provincial moves. However, this is a net negative, with more people leaving the company. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis high turnover reflects the province\u2019s dense population, dynamic job market, and fast-paced urban development,\u201d said the report. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As expected, there is a constant flow of people between Gauteng and the Western Cape, with people moving from Johannesburg and Pretoria to the Western Cape accounting for 48% of all inter-provincial moves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis trend highlights the magnetic pull of the Western Cape’s coastal lifestyle, economic opportunities, and quality of life.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Wise Move\u2019s report didn\u2019t look at tenants specifically, recent semigration patterns have been reflected in PayProp\u2019s rental market statistics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Western Cape had the fastest rental growth in South Africa in the first two quarters of 2024 and experienced double-digit rental growth in Q4 despite already having the highest rents in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gauteng experienced below-average growth in every quarter of 2024. However, Payprop noted that internal migration statistics do not account for this change in rental rates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, Limpopo\u2019s incoming and outgoing migration balanced each other out over the same period, but rental growth in the province boomed in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhatever additional factors affect local supply, demand and pricing, it remains to be seen if the same migration trends will continue in 2025,\u201d it said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMeanwhile, rental growth in the Western Cape slowed from 10.1% in Q4 2024 to 9.6% in Q1 2025<\/strong>, and preliminary PayProp Rental Index figures for Q2 show it has fallen further<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Source: Wise Move<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Reverse semigration <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While the Western Cape is starting to lose its shine in South Africa, Gauteng could begin to see growth as more are drawn to the area. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keke Khojane, GCS Head of Office for Galetti Corporate Real Estate<\/a>, said that employment remains the key driver of the relocation to Gauteng. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey from Stats SA showed that Gauteng had the most significant increase in employment, adding 95,000 jobs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the Western Cape has the lowest official unemployment rate at 21.1%, it saw the largest job loss at 117,000. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khojane said that return-to-office mandates and hybrid models are leading to a recovery in office and commercial markets in Gauteng. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cProminent employers such as Vodacom, Nedbank and Arena Holdings have already formalised the five-day return-to-office after revising their remote working policies,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although work-from-home is unlikely to disappear entirely, the trend has gradually diminished as remote work positions start drying up, which should see Gauteng remain the primary destination for workers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Western Cape may have been South Africa’s semigration hotspot, but early signs are showing a change in the tide. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":831375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12755],"tags":[16382,11791,16854],"class_list":["post-835190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-property","tag-galetti-corporate-real-estate","tag-payprop","tag-wise-move"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835190","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\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=835190"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":835201,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835190\/revisions\/835201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/831375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}