Property

Millionaire coastal town in South Africa collapsing in plain sight but house prices continue to rise

Kirsten Minnaar • 30 April 2026

Despite worsening municipal service delivery, Knysna’s property market is booming, with prices rising sharply as lifestyle-driven buyers continue to invest and self-provision for infrastructure shortcomings.

Just Property CEO Paul Stevens explained that Knysna’s property market is defying the town’s prolonged municipal instability.

The average sales value has increased from around R1.97 million in 2022 to approximately R2.7 million year-to-date in 2026, marking an increase of about 37%.

“Knysna isn’t behaving like a normal distressed town,” Stevens said. “It’s behaving like a lifestyle‑driven, semigration‑magnet coastal node – and those markets follow different rules.”

According to Stevens, the town’s resilience is driven by lifestyle migration, semigration and buyers’ growing ability to self‑provision against unreliable municipal services.

“People aren’t overlooking the service issues – they’re planning around them. Living next to a lagoon bordered by forests in a friendly small-town environment is why there’s no shortage of buyers,” he said.

“For them, the lifestyle value of Knysna outweighs the inconvenience of securing their own services like solar, batteries, water storage and gas.”

Stevens noted that Knysna falls into the same psychological category as Hermanus, Plettenberg Bay, St Francis, and Langebaan.

“These are towns people aspire to live in, and for semigrants – especially remote workers, retirees, and high net worth buyers – the lifestyle value outweighs the municipal risk,” he said.

Sales activity at the high end of the market remains particularly strong, with luxurious homes in estates such as Pezula Golf Estate, Simola, Thesen Island and Belvidere regularly achieving multi‑million‑rand prices.

According to publicly available deeds office data, annual transactions have risen from 954 sales in 2023 and 964 in 2024 to more than 1,070 in 2025, even as water, sewage, and governance failures have intensified.

Referencing Just Property’s own market data, Stevens said it indicates a market strongly driven by later-life movers and retirees.

“Many of our buyers are relocating from Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, and many of them are paying cash or putting down hefty deposits,” he said.

What Knysna buyers are paying

According to Stevens, sectional title properties in Knysna currently start from about R1.4 million and go up to around R3 million.

Freehold erven (vacant stands) typically range from about R850,000 to R3.8 million, with premium stands priced higher depending on size and location.

Freehold homes range from around R2.5 million to R5 million, while estate properties go for about R5 million to R12 million.

Large vacant land parcels and prime vacant sites cost anywhere from about R1 million to over R4 million, depending on size, zoning and positioning.

Stevens explained that estates, in particular, offer homeowners stability in a town where the municipality is struggling.

“Buyers see them as controlled environments with reliable governance and better‑managed infrastructure, which is a major drawcard for people who want greater predictability and security,” he said.

He advised buyers and landlords to plan with service delivery realities in mind and to budget accordingly for self-sufficiency.

“Right now, the market shows no sign of weakening, but it’s wise to bear in mind that if bulk municipal infrastructure were to fail completely, property values could eventually come under pressure,” he said.

Looking ahead, Stevens said that the early momentum in 2026 suggests Knysna’s market still has room to run.

“As long as lifestyle demand remains strong and households continue to invest in private back‑up infrastructure, buyers will keep pricing Knysna as a premium coastal destination, not a town in decline,” he said.