We all know the prices of properties these days are darn outrageous.

But if you want to settle down in one of South Africa’s more affluent residential areas, you better be prepared to fork out a ton of dough.

Research group New World Wealth has published its latest report on South Africa’s prime residential prices, specifically prime apartment complexes.

Part of this group’s research is to “look at the price of property per square metre in prime property areas across the country”, reports BusinessTech.

They’ve identified three prime (read: pricey) locations:

Surprise, surprise, Cape Town’s Atlantic Seaboard – which includes the likes of Bantry Bay, Clifton, V&A, Fresnaye and Camps Bay – tops the list.

However, it’s only contracted around R72 000 per square metre as of March 2018, down from around R75 000 per square metre in December last year, so what’s made it drop?

New World Health chalks it up to the obvious:

This is probably due to the drought which has harmed the residential market there. CT [sic] also had a poor December/January holiday season with many travelers staying away from the city due to the drought – this would have negatively impacted on the number of potential buyers.

As you can see from the table, Central Sandton in Johannesburg has also taken a knock. Meanwhile, Umhlanga has bucked the trend, which is a result of tourists and locals making KZN their new holiday-going spot.

But when it comes to the most expensive streets in the country, Cape Town comes out on top:

Shame, Nettleton – last year they came in third in the country, and now they’ve been knocked down to fourth. Expect lots of hushed whispers along that stretch today.

So if you’ve got millions of rands to spend on luxury digs, then The Ridge & Cliff Road is the ideal place to go property-hunting.

As for richest suburbs, again Cape Town leads the way in the rankings, with two outsider suburbs – Umhlanga and Central Sandton – also landing spots:

There you have it, friends. The most sought-after and seriously wealthy suburbs and streets mostly all lie in the Mother City.

How nice it is to pretend to know what it’s like to live there.

[source:businesstech]