Property in South Africa’s most popular province making owners rich

Investor confidence in the Western Cape’s property sector remains strong, even as it faces issues of affordability and supply.

The residential, commercial, and professional property markets in Cape Town and the rest of the province have seen strong growth over the past few years.

The province has seen particularly high levels of semigration in recent years, as citizens move there from other parts of the country, such as Gauteng.

This is according to Spear CEO Quintin Rossi, who highlighted and discussed the rising demand in a recent interview with 702.

“Around 100,000 to 150,000 people move to the Western Cape on an annualised basis,” Rossi said. “Those people need to live somewhere, so there is huge momentum in the residential sector.”

“They need to shop somewhere, so that drives densification of residential nodes, which deliver retail demand. Equally, those people need to work professionally somewhere which delivers demand for offices.”

Rossi said the office market in Cape Town has significantly outperformed the rest of South Africa, with office vacancies reportedly at their lowest since before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Spear recently raised over R1 billion in capital from an accelerated bookbuild, which was oversubscribed multiple times at a premium to the company’s 30-day average traded share price.

Rossi said this is a clear indication of the strong investor appetite for the property market, particularly in the Western Cape, where Spear is focused.

He explained that this focus on the Western Cape, especially, is one of the biggest draws for investors to invest their money into the company.

“Our reason for existence is that a long time ago, the Western Cape effectively decoupled itself from a real estate perspective from the rest of the country,” Rossi said.

“For investors seeking an entry point into listed real estate without the hassle of being exposed to other municipalities which are potentially falling apart and failing, and solely want to invest in the Western Cape, we are that solution.”

No success without challenges

While the property market in the Western Cape continues to show strong investor potential, it is still beset by many issues.

Surging demand from South Africans semigrating to the province has significantly driven up property prices in the Western Cape.

In Cape Town, especially, the limited housing supply and the growing popularity of short-term rentals have severely affected property affordability.

Statistics South Africa’s latest Residential Property Price Index for November 2025 found annual housing price inflation in the Western Cape had reached 9.5%, compared to just 4.6% for Gauteng.

Rossi said there is also significant stress being placed on the Western Cape’s infrastructure by the mass semigration to the province, which will eventually catch up with the province in some way.

“If you look at pure infrastructure pressure within the Western Cape, quite frankly, it doesn’t matter how much money we’re spending on infrastructure right now,” Rossi said.

“At the rate at which people are moving down to the Western Cape relative to how quickly infrastructure can be put into the ground, there’s always going to be that lag.”

Rossi also noted the limited availability of developable land in the Western Cape, particularly in Cape Town, with natural barriers such as the sea and Table Mountain.

While he said this is not detrimental for nodal development, he emphasised that many of these areas do not yet have the required infrastructure for significant development.

Rossi stressed that even as Spear focuses solely on the Western Cape, he hoped Gauteng could see a resurgence in terms of its property market.

This would reduce the pressure placed on the Western Cape and would likely signal a stronger overall property sector for the country to investors.

“Even though our complete reason for existence is only to invest within the Western Cape, we actually do hope that Gauteng can undergo some sort of a renaissance because that would be good for South Africa,” Rossi said.