Taking Stock of the Western Cape

More than half a million units valued at less than R750k

The Western Cape housing market is characterised by a diverse range of housing options, catering to a wide spectrum of income levels. A significant portion of the housing stock falls into the subsidised and mid-level categories, reflecting the government's efforts to address housing affordability and the evolving needs of the population.

Lightstone provider of data, analytics, and systems for property, and automotive and business assets, shows that nearly 510 000 housing units in the Western Cape valued at under R750k, which accounts for 40% of the total housing stock (1.277m) in the province.

Three out of four properties are subsidised units, which includes RDP and BNG houses, state-subsidised units, and old municipal stock. Mid-Level properties, valued at between R250k-R750k account for 22% of the stock, and Affordable houses, valued at under R250k, make up 4%.

Value Bands

Hayley Ivins-Downes, Managing Executive Real Estate at Lightstone, says new stock coming onto the market, (graph below) demonstrates the dominance of subsidised housing in the market, with limited Affordable stock coming onto the market from 2019 - 2022, but this accelerated in 2023 and into 2024.

Ivins-Downes, said the dominance of subsidised housing is evident in new stock coming onto the market. While limited affordable housing was added from 2019 to 2022, this trend accelerated in 2023 and into 2024. This suggests a growing focus on addressing the needs of a wider range of buyers.  

Half the stock is concentrated in seven areas, namely Cape Town itself (see area in map below) with 16%, Khayelitsha (9%), Mitchells Plein (8%), BlueDowns (8%), Gugulethu (6%), George (3%), and Strand (2%).

The top five places remain the same (although Blue Downs and Mitchells Plain swop places) if we look at the top 20 areas in terms of volume of sales in 2023 to date (see graph below), we see Eerste Rivier, City of Cape Town NU, and Atlantis recording more sales than Strand or George.

‍Sales per town: 2023 to date

As the graph shows, average sales prices are highest in Mitchells Plain, Strand, Brackenfell, Milnerton, and Parow, and lowest in Swartland NUand Grabouw.

The value of Mid-Level and subsidised sales in the Western Cape have been steadily rising over the past 10 years, as the graph below shows, while the average sales price of Affordable homes has shown marginal improvement over the period under review.

Average sales prices in the Western Cape

“The average sales price of Mid-Level and subsidised houses in Cape Town mirrors the trajectory in the Western Cape, while movements in the Affordable category have been erratic, and the Affordable average sales price is the same in nominal terms over 10 years,” said Ivins-Downes.


Average sales prices in Cape Town

Cape Town average sales price per classification