Camps Bay’s Property Boom, By the Numbers

Camps Bay doesn’t need adjectives. It needs numbers. So here are the ones that matter if you’re thinking about buying here.

The market just had its biggest year on record. The Atlantic Seaboard and City Bowl combined turned over R11.3 billion in property sales in 2025 — up 26% from R8.9 billion the year before. Strip out everything under R20 million and the story gets sharper: that top bracket alone did R4.2 billion, a 61% jump, across 116 transactions. Sixteen of those sold for more than R50 million. Two broke R100 million, both in Clifton.

Camps Bay led the pack. Of that R20-million-plus segment, Camps Bay recorded 29 sales — more than any other suburb on the seaboard, ahead of Bantry Bay and Fresnaye at 17 each. Across the wider Atlantic Seaboard apartment market, 329 units changed hands for a combined R2.4 billion, at an average of R7.2 million per unit, with price per square metre climbing to R170,000 (from R160,000). Sales volume was up 14.2% year on year — 22 apartments over R20 million sold this year against 17 in 2022.

Who’s buying, and why it matters for price. International buyers accounted for roughly R2.8 billion of last year’s Atlantic Seaboard sales — about a quarter of total value — with Germany, the UK, and Northern Europe leading. Nationally, foreign buyers now make up more than 40% of all sales above R10 million. Add in the steady flow of semigrants from Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, and you’ve got three separate buyer pools competing for the same short supply of houses.

Why they’re choosing here over the obvious alternatives. The Africa Wealth Report names Cape Town one of only two wealthiest cities on the continent. Knight Frank’s comparison is the one worth remembering: a million dollars buys a 16-square-metre studio in Monaco. In Camps Bay or Clifton, the same money buys a 200-square-metre villa or penthouse. Cape Town and KwaZulu-Natal’s North Coast run at least 50% cheaper than the French Riviera for comparable property. Camps Bay, Clifton, Constantia, Bantry Bay, and the Waterfront are now officially the five most expensive suburbs in South Africa — all trading upwards of R20 million.

It’s not just a holiday home — it’s a yield. Atlantic Seaboard property is generating gross rental yields of 7–9%, against the 3–4% typical of London or New York. Short-term nightly rates in Camps Bay, Clifton, and Bantry Bay run R4,500–R12,000+, and top-performing listings in these suburbs bring in R100,000–R250,000 a month. That gap between “beautiful house” and “beautiful house that pays for itself” is exactly where the smart buyers are looking.

Supply is thin, and everyone selling here knows it. Anything under R8 million in Camps Bay is, in the words of one recent market report, “increasingly rare.” Sellers are achieving 93.3% of asking price on average, and property in the R5–13 million band is routinely going at or above asking. This isn’t a market where you get to think it over for a month.

One more thing worth knowing before you buy: the buyers who actually drive Camps Bay’s top end — the foreign and expat crowd — are most active December through April, tracking the tourist season and a favourable exchange rate. If you’re planning to buy, viewing in that window means you’re competing with the most buyers; viewing outside it means less competition but a thinner pool of what’s on offer.

Buying the house is the easy part, on paper. What happens after — turning a R7 million-plus Camps Bay property into an asset that earns 7–9% a year instead of sitting empty eleven months out of twelve — is the part almost nobody researches before signing. That’s the conversation worth having before, not after, you buy.

If you own property in Camps Bay and have thought about selling, we’d like to hear from you. We work with a steady flow of foreign buyers actively looking for homes in this area, and we also handle a number of quiet, off-market sales — properties never listed with an agent or published on any platform. If that’s of interest, get in touch.