For a few months I have been spewing out rumours about the amount of Joburgers buying homes in the Cape – hence the increase in traffic everywhere, from the roads to the beaches to sidewalks and malls.

It’s suffocating.

What used to be December-only traffic is with us all year now, and when December finally comes around I pray to the high heavens above that I have a reason to leave.

Now I have some real stats pertaining to this phenomenon, thanks to FNB.

They say that Cape Town’s ability to attract homeowners from other provinces is “strengthening,” reports Business Tech.

Gauteng faces challenges of its own: holding onto repeat buyers. FNB noted that for the country’s largest formal housing market, the percentage of repeat buyers leaving Gauteng for the Western Cape has skyrocketed from a lowly 0.8% of Gauteng repeat buyers in 2009 to 9.1% by 2016.

The percentage of Gauteng repeat buyers leaving that province for KZN, by comparison, has only risen from 0.6% of total Gauteng repeat buyers to 1.9% by 2016 – and those with the Eastern Cape as a destination from 0.2% to 1% of total Gauteng repeat buyers over the same period.

Here’s a pretty graph to show you just how many repeat home buyers are leaving their province:

To the coast – there is a graph showing the repeat buyers leaving Jozi in favour of the sea 🌊:

And those repeat buyers are mostly in the Cape, too:

On the plus side, “first-time buyer data suggested that Gauteng continues to attract young skilled labour market entrants moving to the region to start their careers”. Also, Jozi homes are “superior in affordability and can boost such a young buyer inward migration”.

Commenting on the situation was FNB’s household and property sector strategist, John Loos. He had a stern warning for the Western Cape, which is “experiencing something of a golden era”:

This provincial economy is a services dominated one, heavily reliant on skills attraction and retention. To sustain this net inflow of repeat home buyers while retaining more financially constrained 1st time home buyers, the region has to find ways to utilize [sic] land more effectively to create greater residential affordability, while also finding a solution to rapidly mounting traffic congestion.

Oh, don’t we know. It’s little wonder we’re experiencing a water shortage.

[source:businesstech]