The Western Cape’s residential property market has outpaced the rest of the country by a wide margin, with annual home price inflation hitting 9.4% in May 2025. Data from Stats SA shows that the province’s home price index rose from 123.0 in May 2024 to 134.6 this year, the steepest increase of any province. 

In stark contrast, Gauteng, South Africa’s economic heartland, recorded home price inflation of only 2.9% over the same period, with its index inching up from 106.6 to 109.7. This means the rate of home price inflation in the Western Cape is more than three times that of Gauteng, underlining a sharp divergence in housing market trends. 

Nationally, residential property prices rose by 6.1% year-on-year, but this average masks the extraordinary strength of the Western Cape market and the relative stagnation in Gauteng. While the Western Cape continues to attract robust demand, driven by ongoing semigration, strong lifestyle appeal, and efficient government, Gauteng’s slower growth reflects weaker market sentiment and service delivery collapse in its major metros. 

Month-on-month data reinforces this trend: home prices in the Western Cape grew by 0.7% from April to May, compared to a rise of just 0.3% in Gauteng. 

Whilst these figures highlight a seemingly unbreakable gulf in residential property fortunes between the two provinces, Frans Cronje told The Common Sense that: “Should Helen Zille become mayor of Johannesburg and start a city turnaround, then property prices in the city are likely to snap out of their rut, which will narrow the inflation gap with the Western Cape, securing strong returns for wide-awake investors.”