Cape Town’s top-end property market is running hot enough to set records — and industry figures say the strain is starting to show in supply, not just price.
Nowhere is this more evident than on the western peninsula coastline from the V&A Waterfront to Llandudno — and especially on Clifton’s Nettleton Road, which has fewer than 30 properties.
Last week, a Nettleton Road house, perched high up on the slopes of Lion’s Head with sweeping ocean views, came on the market for R175m. The four-bedroom glass-and-concrete modernist mansion is set on a 724m² erf and is off-grid.
The price pips the R157m paid last year by Grammy-winning DJ Black Coffee (Nkosinathi Maphumulo) for a five-level house on the same street. It is designed by Cape Town architect Stefan Antoni, who is known for high-end residential designs.
The Black Coffee sale is believed to be the highest price paid for a house in South Africa in 2025. Also last year, a Spanish buyer forked out R170m for two of the only remaining vacant plots on Nettleton Road, spanning 2,700m².
Andrew Golding, CEO of Pam Golding Properties, the group that clinched last year’s R170m deal and has the mandate for the R175m sale, says the scarcity value of Nettleton Road’s small collection of “exceptional and iconic” homes means that prices upwards of R100m-R150m are no longer uncommon.
But it’s not only Nettleton Road where demand for big-ticket properties has rocketed. Golding says the post-pandemic rebound in demand for luxury homes continues to gain momentum across Cape Town and has led to severe stock shortages and increasingly competitive bidding, especially in the R20m-R70m bracket.
In Constantia, for example, a R48m home was recently sold “sight unseen” at full asking price to a foreign buyer. Golding says other notable sales include a four-bedroom Bantry Bay villa with ocean views that fetched R95m and a Fresnaye sale of R68.5m. “Well-located homes are being sold within days of listing, and in some instances transactions are concluded above asking price,” he says.
We have hundreds of buyers — and very little to sell them
— Sean Phillips
Sean Phillips, a west peninsula property specialist for RE/Max Living, says: “We have hundreds of buyers — and very little to sell them.” He says Cape Town house prices will continue to climb because the market still has plenty of catching up to do after a near decade-long downturn. Phillips says the rebound was triggered two years ago by the outcome of the 2024 national elections. “The market literally turned on its head.”
Before that, Cape Town contended with a severe drought from 2015 to 2018 and a looming Day Zero, regular power cuts and Covid, which all resulted in an exodus of property owners, he says.
Phillips says it’s not difficult to understand why homeowners are increasingly loath to sell. Cape Town offers natural beauty, a Mediterranean climate, beaches, wine farms, golf courses, globally acclaimed restaurants, first-class medical centres and excellent value for money relative to the rest of the world.
“Where would they go?” he asks. “Definitely not abroad. The rest of the world is in mayhem — war in the Middle East, political uncertainty in the US and a humanitarian crisis in Europe.”
Phillips and Golding’s sentiments are backed up by numbers shared with the FM by Ross Levin of Seeff. In the first half of 2026, 115 sales of more than R20m have been concluded in Cape Town, including 13 above R50m. That suggests the record 190 R20m sales achieved in calendar 2025 will be topped this year. That’s well ahead of the 144 recorded in 2024 and nearly four times 2019’s 49 sales, according to Western Cape property sales database PropStats.
Levin says notable top-end deals concluded by Seeff in Cape Town this year include a R66m sale in Fisherman’s Bend in Llandudno and four apartments at the V&A Waterfront for between R35m and R46m. He says the market has been supported by strong demand from local and offshore buyers, especially from the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and France. “Stock levels remain tight,” he says.
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