The local property market is making a comeback after a year in which sales fell up to 50%, but in areas surrounding top schools demand has always remained high, said Pam Golding Properties' chief executive, Andrew Golding.
Competition is no longer just for the best house. Parents also want their little darlings to attend the best schools - and they don't want to travel far to drop off and collect them.
Estate agents say that schools with long waiting lists are forcing parents to rent in suburbs with good schools that have a place for their children instead.
Addressing reporters at Pam Golding Properties' annual media lunch in Cape Town yesterday, Golding said the "trend of a shortage of schooling preventing people buying in some areas" had emerged.
His agents from the Western Cape and Gauteng named areas such as Cape Town's southern suburbs and Johannesburg's Parkview, Parkwood, Parkhurst, Hyde Park and Saxonwold as sought-after suburbs, which also had desirable schools in the vicinity.
"People make an offer on a property subject to their child getting into a certain school," said Pam Golding Western Cape metro region managing director Laurie Wener.
"It's usually the better high schools, both government and private, which have waiting lists. This is happening on an increasing basis and it means that parents rather rent in an area closer to their child's school until they are able to change schools and move," she said.
Andy Todd, principal agent of Seeff southern suburbs in Cape Town, said: "It has been an issue for a number of years now, but there is usually only a bottleneck at the start of the school year."
Golding said it had been "a rough year" for estate agents beset by falling house prices and banks tightening lending practices. The number of estate agents, he said, has dropped from 80,000 two years ago to the current of about 25,000.
Despite rough times, luxury property sales remained high, with agencies such as Seeff and the Dogon Group reporting a roaring trade along Cape Town's Atlantic Seaboard, where more than a handful of homes come with R100-million price tags.
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