You know how it goes.

You find a place that’s pretty and out of the way, but also relatively cheap, to spend the occasional weekend away.

You tell your friends, who tell their friends, and before you know it the place has been overrun by tourists, and then the property buyers, and then you’re priced out for good.

The North Coast of  KwaZulu-Natal, and especially the small beach town of Zinkwazi, is a prime example of this. People are now flocking there to snap up property.

According to Business Insider, two other small towns are headed the same way, and they aren’t just being flagged for run-of-the-mill developments:

There are some 2,200 residential properties in South Africa valued at R20 million or more, a new report by AfrAsia Bank and New World Wealth found.

The 2019 South Africa Wealth Report, released on Wednesday, found that of the those R20 million properties, 900 were located in Cape Town and 480 in Johannesburg.

Let’s start with why Zinkwazi garners attention:

[It] has benefited from the construction of King Shaka International Airport in nearby La Mercy. It also offers larger plots than nearby Ballito and Umhlanga.

Next up is Nature’s Valley on the Garden Route:

[It] offers relatively untouched nature and forests, and where a number of large homes are being built, or older homes are being renovated.

The third area mentioned…

The small village of Keurbooms on the Garden Route, which offers residents more privacy than nearby Plettenberg Bay.

Plettenberg Bay used to be one of those affordable places, but now it’s up there with Cape Town and Jozi as one of the top three spots with the most R20 million homes in the country.

Plettenberg Bay has 130 properties worth R20 million or more, the report found, followed by Umhlanga and La Lucia with 120 properties, Knynsa with 90, and Ballito and Stellenbosch both with 80.

The most expensive streets in South Africa not located in Cape Town are Beachyhead Drive in Plettenberg Bay where a square metre costs an average of R43,000, and Lagoon Drive in Umhlanga where a square metre costs an average of R40,000.

If you nipped into those respective property markets back in the day, you’re sitting very well here in 2019.

[source:businessinsider]