22/09/2026
Your house has probably been a poor investment in recent years, unless you live in the Western Cape. Does the old adage “location, location, location” still ring true when it comes to how much money South Africans are making on residential bricks and mortar? Absolutely. That much is clear from the latest housing data from various industry players which reflect an ever-widening gap in the performance of different regions.
Unsurprisingly, the Western Cape — Cape Town in particular — continues to lead the pack in terms of house price growth. In fact, research from independent economist John Loos shows that the Western Cape and Northern Cape (albeit to a far lesser degree) are the only two provinces where homeowners have seen inflation-beating capital growth since 2010. Loos’s analysis of Stats SA’s house price indices, which he adjusted using CPI inflation, shows that the other provinces all recorded inflation-adjusted declines over the past 16 years.
Western Cape property outpaces other provinces while Joburg stagnates
