{"id":852555,"date":"2026-03-14T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=852555"},"modified":"2026-03-13T16:42:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T14:42:55","slug":"the-small-town-in-south-africa-where-millionaires-are-rushing-to-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/property\/852555\/the-small-town-in-south-africa-where-millionaires-are-rushing-to-live\/","title":{"rendered":"The small town in South Africa where millionaires are rushing to live"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Garden Route coastal town of Plettenberg Bay experienced a boom in 2025, with property sales breaking records and topping R2.8 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The town recorded 682 sales during the year, averaging around R4.7 million per property. The highest value sale was a luxury villa on Beach Head, which sold for R36 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to property group Seeff, the town continues to see some of the highest values paid in the country outside of the Cape Town areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, Lightstone ranks the town as home to the highest percentage of high-value properties, with nearly 40% of all properties valued at over R3 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The boom has been driven by factors such as sustained lifestyle migration, retirement, remote working, and holiday home investments, which have propelled the market surge over the past five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This is the highest in volume and value since the 2021\/2 boom period, up by about 33% in volume and 27% in value,” the group said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The overall average transaction price increased by about 9.3% to R4.7 million, driven by a higher volume of sales over the R5 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were also a notable number of sales over R10 million and R20 million, Seeff said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As has been a notable trend across South Africa, especially in urban hubs, estates have seen tremendous growth and accounted for about 39% of all high-value transactions in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is followed by freehold properties at 38% and sectional titles at 23%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freehold estate properties transacted at R5.2 million on average, and sectional titles in estates at R3.2 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freehold properties outside of estates averaged at R5.9 million (R9.1 million for high-end properties), slightly higher than estates, due to high-value sales over R15 million pushing up the average, Seeff said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sectional title property transacted at around R3.1 million on average.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“While the most active price band remains between R2 million and R4 million, there has been a significant shift towards the luxury segment in recent years, especially in the estates and for waterfront properties,” the realtor said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transactions over R5 million increased to just over 20% of the market, predominantly within the estates. Transactions over R10 million make up about 7% of all transactions for the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Property prices have doubled<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Plettenberg Bay is one of the top luxury destinations on the Garden Route for property buyers and investors. It is also home to many of South Africa’s millionaires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the African Wealth Report by Henley & Partners last year, the Garden Route has an estimated 3,200 HNWIs spread across its towns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

High-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) are those with a liquid wealth exceeding US$1 million (roughly R18 million).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beachy Head Drive in Plettenberg Bay is particularly affluent and has been dubbed \u201cAfrica\u2019s Millionaire Row.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The investment case is further supported by excellent price growth, with median property prices doubling over the past decade and rising by a significant 38% in 2024, driven by higher-value sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The region has also been boosted by a bumper summer tourism season, with the short-term rentals market booming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With lower interest rates and a generally more positive outlook for the market, Seeff expects the market to continue to see strong demand amid the general migration to lifestyle areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, while this is a great development for investors, Lightstone Property has noted that this has created a major affordability problem for those who live and work in the town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plett is also one of four key property markets along the Garden Route, with other towns also making a big splash in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

George, which is considered the commercial hub of the region, also recorded around R3 billion in transactions for the year ending September 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Average prices in George have risen by more than 30% over the past three years, driven by strong demand, limited supply, and ongoing stock shortages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mossel Bay, a top choice for retirees and holiday investors, has seen an influx of buyers driven by lifestyle, safety, and tourism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall transactions for 2025 stood at R2.4 billion for the 12 months to the end of November 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knysna is also among the high-demand areas on the route, where transactions over the 12 months to the end of November totalled R2.2 billion, with an average transaction price of R3.7 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Garden Route coastal town of Plettenberg Bay experienced a boom in 2025, with property sales breaking records and topping R2.8 billion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":831375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12755],"tags":[21603,24898,10773],"class_list":["post-852555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-property","tag-garden-route","tag-plettenburg-bay","tag-seeff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852555","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=852555"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":852672,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852555\/revisions\/852672"}],"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=852555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}