Wealthy individuals flocking to South Africa's Western Cape for quality of life and luxury opportunities

Global wealth is on the move as high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) relocate from longstanding wealth strongholds to other locations in increasing numbers, and there are three main factors currently motivating them to do so.

Berry Everitt, CEO of the Chas Everitt International property group, notes that there are three drivers to South Africans relocating.

He was commenting in this year's Africa Wealth Report, which also shows that the number of millionaires in South Africa declined year-on-year to 41,100 – defined in US dollars. There are eight billionaires, it noted.

Everitt, who is also a director on the LeadingRE Global Advisory Board, notes that the figures from the Africa Wealth Report show that South Africa’s millionaires are choosing the Western Cape over Gauteng.

“Indeed, the Western Cape now has a higher HNWI population than Gauteng, with 17,300 millionaires spread between Cape Town, the Winelands, the Whale Coast, and the Garden Route, compared to approximately 14,000 who live in Johannesburg and Pretoria. Notably, the southern region is also home to 65 of South Africa’s 112 centi-millionaires and six of its eight billionaires,” says Everitt.

According to the 2025 Telegraph Travel Awards, Cape Town has officially been named the Best City on Earth for the 11th year in a row.

Everitt says this wealth redistribution has developed over many years, starting with the “semigration” of affluent families from Gauteng and other parts of the country to the Western Cape in pursuit of the comparatively better quality of life the province offers.

“The rise of remote working during the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated this trend, which has lately been further underpinned by the growing international recognition of Cape Town, in particular, as one of the best cities in the world to live in, which has led to more international HNWI families joining their South African counterparts in the ‘Mother City’, and to a growing shortage of luxury homes for sale in high-demand areas like the Atlantic Seaboard and Constantia.

“Prices in these areas have soared and that has led, in turn, to buyers broadening their search to other parts of the province that also offer exceptional lifestyle advantages,” says Everitt,

These include the Whale Coast and its central town of Hermanus, where property sales have doubled in the past five years and the average home price has risen by 75%, and the Winelands, where prices in luxury wellness estates like Val de Vie have almost tripled since 2020.”

Corruption kingpin Markus Jooste’s Hermanus Voëlklip house recently went up for sale and is expected to attract a purchase price of more than R100 million, with price on application.

Seeff’s website shows a lavish property listed as “price on application” in “one of Hermanus’s most iconic and private coastal estates”. The Voëlklip property “boasts uninterrupted panoramic views across the vast ocean expanse of Walker Bay, framed by a majestic mountain backdrop — a setting that defines prestige, privacy, and presence,” the site says.

Seven years ago, Jooste sold his plot in Val de Vie in the Paarl area for R13 million after initially putting it on the market for R15 million.

Everitt says other millionaire hotspots in the Western Cape include George and Plettenberg Bay on the Garden Route along the southern coast.

This boasts a string of world-class golf estates and signature courses where many HNWIs from abroad are now snapping up magnificent luxury homes with sea and mountain views and easy access to quality schools, private healthcare amenities and upmarket shopping venues – all for a fraction of what it would cost them to enjoy this lifestyle elsewhere in the world.

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