{"id":871250,"date":"2026-08-26T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=871250"},"modified":"2026-08-26T14:44:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T12:44:39","slug":"how-much-it-costs-to-live-in-the-safest-town-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/871250\/how-much-it-costs-to-live-in-the-safest-town-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"How much it costs to live in the safest town in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Firlands, near Gordon\u2019s Bay in Cape Town, is one of the safest suburbs in South Africa, according to the StreetSignal Safety Index.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to the nature of the suburb, coupled with Cape Town\u2019s property prices, it will cost you an estimated R52,426 a month to live in an average property priced at R4.9 million. However, there are cheaper options.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to StreetSignal Safety Index, Firlands ranks in the 100th percentile, with a safety score of 89 out of 100, making it the safest suburb in the index.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its safety ranking is based on an analysis of crime data, population, property values, and other factors designed to provide a more detailed picture of residential risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

StreetSignal\u2019s data showed that Firlands has a notably low level of reported crime. Its policing precinct, Gordon\u2019s Bay, records 1,356 reported crimes per year, which is described as a \u201cVery low Absolute crime volume\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This compares with a city-wide median of 4,280 annual reported crimes per suburb. The difference becomes more apparent when the precinct figures are compared with the latest South African Police Service crime statistics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between January and March 2026, the Western Cape recorded 68,345 community-reported serious crimes, accounting for 19.1% of the national total of 358,360.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the same three-month period, Cape Town Central recorded 2,824 serious crimes, while Delft recorded 1,576.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In comparison, the entire Gordon\u2019s Bay precinct, which covers Firlands and several surrounding areas, records 1,356 crimes over a full year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, StreetSignal stressed<\/a> that raw police statistics cannot simply be applied directly to individual suburbs because SAPS publishes crime figures at the precinct level rather than the suburb level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To address this, the index used a five-step process. Crime recorded in each precinct is allocated to individual suburbs using \u201cpopulation-weighted dasymetric allocation\u201d, with factors such as property valuations and vehicle ownership also considered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The index also removed crimes detected through police action, including drug-related offences, driving under the influence and illegal firearm possession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

StreetSignal said that these categories reflect police patrol deployment and enforcement effort, not residential victimisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cost of an average property<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Crime is then weighted according to severity using the Crime Harm Index. This considers the minimum prison sentence associated with an offence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Murder, for example, carries 5,475 harm-days, compared with just two for shoplifting. Consequently, \u201cone murder contributes the same harm to the index as 2,738 shoplifting incidents\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The system also uses empirical Bayes smoothing to reduce distortions in small suburbs, where a single incident can have an outsized impact on per-capita crime figures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, the index combined crime harm per person with total crime harm using a geometric mean. This means a suburb must perform well on both measures to receive a high overall safety score.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Living in one of Cape Town\u2019s safest areas, however, comes at a substantial cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The median property value in Firlands is around R4.9 million. Property values have recorded a 7.0% annual compound growth rate since 2022, while the longer-term growth rate between 2018 and 2025 was 12.1% per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The median figure is influenced by the large number of high-value farms and lifestyle properties in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apartments and sectional-title units can cost between about R800,000 and R1.4 million, while houses and smallholdings generally range from R4.9 million to R6 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Larger luxury estates and farms can cost between R6.5 million and more than R15 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For someone buying a R4.9 million property with no deposit, a 20-year home loan at an interest rate of 10.5% would cost approximately R48,921 a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on Cape Town\u2019s 2026\/27 tariffs<\/a>, effective from 1 July 2026, a R4.9 million residential property would have an estimated municipal bill of about R5,801.58 per month, assuming 600 kWh of electricity and 15 kilolitres each of water and sanitation usage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This includes approximately R2,292.65 in property rates, R2,566.80 for electricity, including fixed charges and usage, R359.38 for water, R327.75 for sanitation and R255 for refuse removal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monthly Municipal Cost Breakdown<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/td>Details<\/strong><\/td>Monthly cost <\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead>
Property Rates (Annual\/Custom Basis)<\/strong><\/td>\u2014<\/td>R48,920.61 <\/td><\/tr>
Electricity (Fixed Charges)<\/strong><\/td>Home User Network Fee + AMI Admin Fee<\/td>R431.10<\/td><\/tr>
Electricity (600 kWh Usage)<\/strong><\/td>600 kWh @ R3.5595\/kWh (incl. VAT)<\/td>R2,135.70<\/td><\/tr>
Water (15 kL Usage)<\/strong><\/td>Basic connection fee + Step usage charges (0\u201315 kL)<\/td>R359.38<\/td><\/tr>
Sanitation (15 kL Usage)<\/strong><\/td>Basic connection fee + Sewerage discharge volume charge<\/td>R327.75<\/td><\/tr>
Refuse Removal<\/strong><\/td>Standard 240L Wheelie Bin (1x per week)<\/td>R255.00<\/td><\/tr>
Total estimated monthly cost<\/strong><\/td>\u2014<\/strong><\/td>R52,429.54<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Images of Gordon’s Bay and Firlands <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This town in the Western Cape is one of the safest suburbs in South Africa, according to the StreetSignal Safety Index.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":871286,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2092628403828531234","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2187341822086217","_sma_instagram_post_id":"17959174071195132","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[2279,26246,853,5784,26247],"class_list":["post-871250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-cape-town","tag-firlands","tag-south-africa","tag-south-african-police-service-saps","tag-streetsignal-safety-index"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871250","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\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=871250"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":871291,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871250\/revisions\/871291"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}