MAIN IMAGE: Esteani Marx – business development executive at Lightstone Property
Lightstone Property
New Lightstone data shows a cluster of mostly coastal districts is now matching or beating the big cities on sales activity, speed and price, with the Cape Winelands out in front.
A group of six districts outside South Africa’s major metros is holding its own against the big cities on the measures sellers care about most, according to Lightstone data covering the past 18 months. The Cape Winelands leads the group and, on several metrics, trails only Cape Town among the country’s five biggest metros.
Lightstone ranked the top six best-selling districts outside the metros on property activity across 2025 and 2026, measured by total sales value, average sales value, churn rate, the share of stock that changes hands, and a useful signal of how liquid a market is. Five of the six are coastal. They are the West Coast, Cape Winelands, Overberg and Eden districts in the Western Cape, the Sarah Baartman District in the Eastern Cape and the iLembe District in KwaZulu-Natal. Only the Cape Winelands is inland.
Much of the movement is being driven by buyers coming from outside these areas. Lightstone notes that Cape Town sellers typically head to the Overberg or West Coast for more space, a coastal lifestyle and comparatively lower prices, while keeping reasonable access to the city. Those buyers are often prompted by a lifestyle change such as retirement or remote work, by demand for weekend homes, and by the appeal of quieter towns such as Hermanus, Stanford and Langebaan, which offer scenic coastlines and a slower pace without severing links to Cape Town’s services and networks.
The iLembe and Overberg districts show the biggest relative inflow, the proportion of activity coming from buyers outside the area. Both rely substantially on external demand rather than local movers, helped by affordability relative to metro prices. According to Lightstone, iLembe draws buyers seeking coastal property at lower entry prices near Durban and close to King Shaka International Airport, while the Overberg pulls in buyers from Cape Town and elsewhere for holiday homes, retirement, and second-home investment. Eden, for its part, is most attractive to buyers from Gauteng, whose demand tends to favour freestanding and holiday homes in towns across the district.
Median time-on-market, days. Top six districts v big five metros, 2025-2026. Source: Lightstone
“Listed properties in the Cape Winelands, with Paarl, Worcester, Stellenbosch and Wellington as its anchor towns, spend the least time-on-market of the six districts, and significantly so at less than 50 days compared to Overberg and Sarah Baartman at 75 days. Of the big five metros, only Cape Town outperforms Cape Winelands,” says Esteani Marx, business development executive at Lightstone Property.
For context, the Overberg includes Hermanus, Caledon, Bredasdorp, Grabouw and Swellendam, as well as Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point in Africa. Sarah Baartman borders the Western Cape and stretches east to Ndlambe (Port Alfred) and Makhanda (Grahamstown), taking in St Francis Bay and Jeffreys Bay to the west and inland towns such as Somerset East and Graaff-Reinet.
Median price achieved as a percentage of asking. Top six districts v big five metros, 2025-2026. Source: Lightstone
“The Cape Winelands again leads the way in terms of median price achieved as a percentage of asking price at 95%, and is followed by West Coast (94%), home to Langebaan and Moorreesburg (the seat of the District Municipality), and the municipalities of Matzikama, Cederberg, Bergrivier, Saldanha Bay and Swartland. Overberg and Sarah Baartman were next, just short of 94%, followed by iLembe (home to Ballito and Salt Rock) and Eden (which includes George, Mossel Bay, Knysna and Plettenberg Bay), both just above 93%,” says Marx.
On this measure, the Cape Winelands again beat only Cape Town among the big five metros, while the West Coast’s median price as a percentage of asking outperformed Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and eThekwini.
Age split of buyers, percentage. Top six districts, 2025-2026. Source: Lightstone
Buyer age profiles vary widely across the six. Lightstone data shows the Cape Winelands (67% under 50) and iLembe (69% under 50) attract the largest share of younger buyers, and just over half of West Coast buyers were under 50. Older buyers leaned the other way, favouring the Overberg, where they made up 56% of sales, and Eden at 55%.
Data source: Lightstone Property. Figures cover residential property sales across 2025-2026.
