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Those of you who subscribe to our waiting-to-win-an-award Morning Spice will most likely have read the recent article about the Top five budget-friendly cities in South Africa. Quite how this was concluded is unsure at this time but for now, let’s take it at face value – after all, nobody who lives in Cape Town will ever call this place budget-friendly, unless the word budget is as foreign to you as ‘Checkers housebrands’.

Indeed, Cape Town may be the top destination for the third year in a row, but if you’re a Saffa, you might be curious to know what price is put on bitchin’ beaches and a big rock shaped like a table. As anyone who has ever set foot overseas knows, there are only two metrics that really gauge how affordable a city is: the cost of a beer at a local pub and the price of a house.

Since beer will remain a bargain even if your local watering hole charges R200 per pint, let’s compare the other industry standard for affordability. We go into this with an open mind, mind you, and in no way is this an attempt to take away any crumbs of glory that fall from Cape Town’s overpriced dining tables.

As per the article, the town formerly known as Port Elizabeth, Gqeberha, has been fingered as the most budget-friendly in SA. Good for old PE, it’s a really nice place and my family have had many a pleasant holiday staying in the Bliss Holiday Apartment in Summerstrand. The ocean is warm(er), the people are friendly, and Einstein’s on the beachfront used to have the coldest beer in the country.

So let’s get to the stuff that really matters when migrating – how much would a Gqeberha home set you back versus a local pozzie? Let’s compare shall we?

Gqeberha

Summerstrand is to many the flattened equivalent of Seapoint, and if you’re keen to take the family to the Eastern Cape, there is this lovely 5-bedroom house for sale with sea views as well as only being 100 meters away from the sea.

This Gqeberha villa can be yours for a ‘reasonable’ R6 999 000:

Pretty, ne? Now let’s take the eight-hour drive back to Cape Town and see what our seven bar can buy in the other windy city.

Cape Town

To be fair, we used our search criteria (a house at a maximum of R7 million) to identify something we thought was in a comparable location in Cape Town, and after clicking the ‘filter’ buttons on the same national property website, this “gorgeous townhouse in the heart of Sea Point” is the first property we saw this.

 This gem is on the market for R 6 800 000 and you can check out the full listing here.

This entire exercise might be pointless if you consider the myriad of differences between the two cities, so perhaps it’s ‘cheating’ to just randomly google for houses and then base our opinion around ‘budget-friendliness’ solely on two house listings. There are other houses, and there are other beaches.

Both cities have their perks, as well as pains. If it was up to me I would take the Seapoint house, because, well, Cape Town. What is abundantly clear though is that house prices in South Africa, and the world for that matter, are whacked.

So, is Gqeberha the ‘most budget-friendly’ city in SA? Probably, but as we’ve just said, this is Cape Town baby! I’d rather stay in a 1-bedroom garden shack in Gardens than in a mansion anywhere else.

[source:property24&sapeople]