In 2025, property values in Cape Town grew at double the rate of Johannesburg.

This is according to the latest Residential Property Price Index (RPPI) released by Statistics South Africa last week.

According to the RPPI, property price inflation in January 2026, compared to January 2025, was 11.5%. The rate for Johannesburg was 4.7%.

Average property price inflation between January 2025 and January 2026 was between 4% and 5% for all the other metros, with the exception of Nelson Mandela Bay and Buffalo City, the two metros in the Eastern Cape. In Nelson Mandela Bay, the biggest city in the Eastern Cape, property price inflation in the year to January 2026 was 2.4%, while up the coast, in Buffalo City, property price inflation was more than double for the same period, at 5.6%.

In the other four metros property price inflation between January 2025 and January 2026 was 4.9% for eThekwini, 4.4% for Ekurhuleni, 4.1% for Mangaung, and 4.0% for Tshwane.

Average property price inflation for the metros as a whole for the period was 7.7%.

Marius Roodt, deputy editor of The Common Sense said: “The upcoming local government elections, which are due to be held in November, will be an important indicator of how property prices will go in the metros in the next few years.

“Cape Town’s property increases are because of a number of factors, but key to it is that the municipality is relatively well-run, and does the basics as they should. If South Africa’s other metros also start being run properly, with services being delivered, water and electricity supply being maintained, and potholes being filled, property prices in South Africa’s other cities could also grow rapidly.”

“In many ways, the problems in Cape Town, such as property costs pricing out locals and the traffic issues, are because the city is a victim of its own success. People will go to places which are well-managed, because that’s where businesses and so on go to, and therefore where opportunities are. In a way, Cape Town’s problems would begin to be solved if the problems in other metros are solved,” Roodt said.