The 10 Most Popular Estates in South Africa to Retire To
New data from analytics group Lightstone shows which estates in South Africa are drawing the most retirees.
According to Lightstone, which has been tracking the retirement property industry for the last 20 years, the sector has evolved from limited options to now include an array of lifestyle estate options, sectional title or lock-up-and-go as well as the upmarket coastal home.
In a view of the total volume of properties transacted over the last decade the group noted that the majority of transfers were conducted in Gauteng with the most transactions (2,883) in 2013 with Western Cape showing a slight peak in 2017.
Esteani Marx, head of real estate at Lightstone said that the trend of Gauteng enjoying the most collective transfers is not surprising as the most property transactions across demographics and value bands transpire in this province.
“When we investigate the value bands in the retirement category, the view is rather different over the last decade,” Marx said.
Gauteng enjoyed higher transfers in value from 2010, and remained the front runner for the next six years. From 2015, transactions in the higher value bands started to climb in the Western Cape and continued to do so until late in 2019.
During 2018 the variance in value between Western Cape and its closest competitor, Gauteng was more than R1,000,000 and compared to Kwazulu-Natal over R2,000,000.
Lightstone has consistently reported that the property market in the Western Cape has been higher in value vs volume over the last several years.
“In a holistic view of the top ten most popular estates for the 60+ market in terms of volume, five are located in the Western Cape making the Mother City the most attractive retirement destination with 754 transactions since 2018,” Marx said.
Analysis of South Africa’s top 10 most popular estates in the retiree age bracket (over 60) indicates that Waterfront Residential Estate had the highest volume growth since 2018 with 320 transactions, followed by Euphoria Golf Estate located in Modimolle with 314 transactions and thirdly, Urban Ridge South Retirement Estate based in Midrand with 232 transactions.
In the Western Cape, estate living is the most popular property type in contrast to Gauteng and Kwazulu Natal where sectional title is the most sought after option, and a much smaller percentage of transactions occur within estates.
As indicated in the below graph, Marx notes that freehold properties, which are usually the most popular choice across age and income groups is far less attractive to this age group with a fractional volume compared to the other two options.
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