Emigration-driven property sales may be at an all-time high, but the impact in terms of loss of skills and people to the country appears less alarming considering the number of South Africans who are returning and a resumption of high-end property sales by foreigners in some areas.
Although formal figures on emigration and immigration are hard to come by, estate agent surveys and housing data have indicated that emigration accounted for about 13 percent of house sales across the country last year.
For instance, an FNB Residential Property Barometer survey for last September showed that emigration had risen to about 15 percent, year-to-date, of all homes coming on the market for sale, which was about double the figure three to four years before.
However, many South Africans were also choosing to return to their country, said RE/MAX of Southern Africa chief executive and regional director Adrian Goslett.
There is no official bureau that collects immigration data, which means there is no record of these sorts of returns. He said the closest one could get to these insights was research compiled by Statistics SA.
Its latest report showed that 442436 South African residents arrived and 453266 departed between May 2018 and May last year. This translated into a difference of 10830 more departures, which was only a 2 percent net movement between South Africans who had come in and out of the country.
Goslett said although this was far from the full picture of South African emigration, it did present a more hopeful outlook for local sentiment.
In addition, Stats SA data showed that foreign traveller arrivals totalled 1213675 and departures amounted to 1106649 between May 2018 and last May. This translated into 107026 more arrivals, which represented a 9 percent net movement of foreign visitors who came in and out of South Africa in that period.
Gostlett said the 2019 edition of Euromonitor International’s Top 100 City Destinations placed Johannesburg 54th. Johannesburg was the most popular African destination city in the annual Mastercard Global Destination Cities Index for 2017.
Polokwane and Cape Town grabbed two other spots in the top five African cities ranked in the index.
“These reports suggest South Africa is still a sought-after destination favoured by many locals and foreigners alike. Property prices are far more affordable here, which gives locals a reason to stay and foreigners a reason to invest. Though some are choosing to leave, our country still has much to offer potential investors, both foreign and local,” Goslett said.
Popular destinations for South African expats are the UK, New Zealand, Australia and the US.
Chas Everitt International Luxury Portfolio division chief executive Rory O’Hagan said that, at the end of last year, high-end property buyers from other African countries, China, India and Russia had become particularly active in the Johannesburg market.
“And as a result we have seen a sharp turnaround in luxury home sales, a contrast to the first half of (2019) when all the talk among luxury property owners was about emigration, the market was oversupplied with the homes of those wanting to leave South Africa, and sales were really sluggish.”
He said the group’s Luxury and New Developments Company and Sandton and Hyde Park sales team, in the three months to last November, had been selling luxury apartments and houses in Johannesburg’s northern suburbs valued at more than R100 million a month.