JOHANNESBURG - Cape Town has been favourably placed on the annual Knight Frank Global Wealth Report.
The latest global wealth data, released this week and prepared exclusively for Knight Frank’s 12th edition of the Wealth Report, showed an increase last year in the number of people with net assets worth in excess of $50 million (R595.75m).
In the Knight Frank’s Prime International Residential Index, 100 top-10 performing markets, Cape Town was placed second with 19.9percent, while Guangzhou (China) took top spot with 27.4percent.
Relevant to the global real estate industry, the report highlighted an increase in global real estate investment.
Susan Turner, managing director at Knight Frank South Africa, said this put Cape Town’s luxury residential market in prime position within the investment landscape as most ultra-high-net-worth individuals wanted to become global citizens and were looking at acquiring property.
She added that Cape Town had much to offer the global investor, especially delivering on floor space, in comparison with other popular destinations such as New York, Sydney or London.
Ian Slot, the managing director for Seeff Atlantic Seaboard, Waterfront and City Bowl, said it should come as no surprise that Cape Town enjoyed a top ranking as a luxury destination, given the high demand for property in the city and the fact that the Atlantic Seaboard in particular had achieved prices of some 40percent to 60percent higher than anywhere else in South Africa.
Slot said that where only a handful of R20m-plus homes sold elsewhere in the country, some 86 sales worth more than R2.5billion had been recorded above the R20m mark for Cape Town during the 2017 year (per Propstats data).
He said that overall, Cape property attracted higher prices, with more sales in the R10m-plus sector, but especially in the R20m-plus sector.
“Despite the overall dip in the market activity over the last year due to the poor political and economic climate, Cape Town remains as sought-after as ever, attracting buyers from across the continent and globe.
"There is still a high desire among people from up-country to move here and it is only the economic conditions and difficulty in getting their houses sold that is holding many buyers back from investing in Cape Town."
Slot said it was already the most popular tourist city in the country and the renewed focus on further tourism growth would no doubt be a further boost to the city.