Move aside foreign buyers - Gautengers splurge R350-million on luxury Cape Town pads

Gautengers have in the past year unseated foreign buyers to pick up some of the most expensive homes in Cape Town.

In the majority of cases they paid cash for the top-end properties, which sold for more than R20-million each.

According to the latest information from online sales database Propstats, Gauteng buyers purchased 12 exclusive homes along the Atlantic seaboard to the value of R350-million altogether.

The sales include a R75-million house in Fresnaye and a Clifton home for R62-million.

Lance Cohen, from the Seeff property group, said the homes had luxury finishes, air-conditioning, en suite bathrooms, underfloor heating, "amazing patios" and pools overlooking the ocean.

But it is the views buyers are hunting for.

Cohen joked that buyers "pay for the view" and the homes come for free.

He said a popular demand was for a glimpse of Robben Island - and the mountain.

Seeff has sold mostly to business executives and entrepreneurs who have their meetings at home and are big on entertaining clients there as well.

"It is interesting that buyers won't pay that amount of money for a house in Johannesburg.

"They feel more comfortable on the Atlantic seaboard and there is a level of status that's associated with it," said Samuel Seeff, Seeff Properties chairman.

While Gautengers have dethroned foreigners as the high-end property buyers in Cape Town, the record residential property sale in Africa still belongs to a German couple.

In June, Dogon group secured the R290-million sale for a 10-bedroom house in Bantry Bay.

"To afford a luxury beach property with a median value range of R11.7-million in Llandudno [on the Atlantic seaboard] you'd need a monthly salary of R389400," a report from property research firm Lightstone found earlier this year.