Widening the gap

Provincial property data shows widespread differences between provinces

Ongoing urbanisation fuelled by a lack of service delivery and economic stagnation, is driving people - mostly those in the primary economically active age bands - to three provincial economic hubs namely Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape.

“Lightstone’s analysis of provincial data provides a snapshot of SA’s property market which highlights widely different ratios of formal to informal housing from one province to another, where age and wealth bands live, and the volume and value of properties transacted,” says Hayley Ivins-Downes, Head of Digital at Lightstone Property.

Highlights include: 

• Nearly 60% of South Africans live in 3 provinces – Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape.
• 3 provinces grew populations ahead of the national average – only Gauteng, Western Cape and North West did so over the last 11 years, while Mpumalanga matched the rate of 17%.
• 41% of South Africans live in properties registered at the Deeds Office, while 59% live in informal households – and the Western Cape leads the way with 61% of the province living in formal properties.
• 53% of property stock, 67% of value, were recorded in two provinces – Gauteng and Western Cape – which account for 58% of the population.
• The Western Cape accounted for 29% of the value of 2022 transactions, but 18% of volumes – and the province is home to the highest percentage of Luxury properties.
• Limpopo is home to the highest percentage of young people, while Gauteng had the lowest percentage.
• When expressing Affordable properties as a % of all properties in the province the resulting ratio is the highest in the Free State.

Where do South African’s live?

Just more than 16 million (27%) of South Africa’s 60.5 million people live in its engine room, Gauteng, while 11.5 million (19%) live in KZN and 7.2 million people (12%) live in the Western Cape.

Northern Cape is least populated with 1.3 million (2%) people, followed by Free State at 2.9 million (5%) and North West with 4.1 million (7%), Mpumalanga with 4.7 million (8%), Limpopo with 5.9 million (10%) and Eastern Cape with 6.6 million (11%).