[Image: Secret Cape Town]
Walk on the Sea Point promenade, head to a cafe in the CBD, lounge at the Clifton beaches, and you will suddenly find yourself surrounded by the harangue of foreign languages.
The Mother City is positively overrun by tourists, travellers and the dreaded digital nomads.
While this certainly benefits some (the tourism sector, hospitality folk, restauranteurs, Uber drivers, and the horniest okes on Tinder) it is also completely stressing out a lot of the locals whose jaws are dropping at alarming rates every time they buy a coffee or check the skyrocketing rental and property prices in Cape Town. Ja, hey, yikes!
I am still trying to locate my jaw after it dropped when I saw City Press‘s article on how Cape Town’s rental prices are soaring out of control.
High interest rates and a shortage of rental properties have pushed the price of renting a house in a good neighbourhood in the Western Cape to a six-figure sum.
Tenants are already paying R10,000 for a one-bedroom unit, R50,000 for a three-bedroom unit, and R100,000 for a five-bedroom house in the Winelands.
That’s mal.
According to Inside Airbnb, an organisation measuring the impact of Airbnbs on residential communities, Cape Town had 25,816 listed Airbnbs in December 2024.
Statistics South Africa calculated last year that the Western Cape would have an influx of 491,296 newcomers over the period from 2021 to 2026.
Overrun, I said.
Governments around the world have had to adapt to the rise of digital nomads, said Doris Viljoen, the director of the Institute for Futures Research at Stellenbosch Business School, per Mail&Guardian.
“They were sort of pushed to react, because the nomads themselves made the push. The nomads found spaces and places they thought would be interesting to stay and to work from. By their mere presence … governments sort of had to react,” Viljoen said.
Back in 2022, Ramaphosa pitched a remote working visa to boost SA’s economy. Two years later, in 2024, Home Affairs finally put out draft regulations to make it happen.
“Unlike typical tourists, digital nomads tend to stay for longer periods, which translates into more sustained income for local businesses and increased occupancy rates for the hospitality sector,” said Rosemary Anderson, the national chairperson of the Federated Hospitality Association of Southern Africa (Fedhasa).
“Moreover, these individuals often possess disposable income and a propensity to explore local attractions, dine out and participate in cultural activities, further stimulating the economy.”
Sounds great for tourism, but this is a double-edged sword, as digital nomads often drive up living costs, making life harder for locals.
Both Portugal and Mexico are rolling out the welcome mat with digital nomad visas, but not everyone’s thrilled about it. Locals in Lisbon and Mexico City are giving the remote workers flak for making housing unaffordable.
Last year, thousands of protesters reportedly took to the streets of Lisbon complaining that the cost of living in the city had become untenable. According to the World Economic Forum, rental prices in the Portuguese capital have risen 30% in the past five years.
Meanwhile, over in Mexico City, things got heated in 2022 when protesters blamed the Airbnb boom for making rent impossible. And the numbers don’t lie—according to activist site Inside Airbnb, the city now has 26,760 short-term rental listings. That’s almost 4,000 more than Cape Town, which is also a digital nomad magnet, right up there with Lisbon.
Cape Town’s been dealing with a housing crisis long before remote workers showed up with their MacBooks and oat milk lattes. But locals are starting to feel the squeeze, with social media users grumbling that their rands just can’t keep up with dollars and euros.
One person summed it up bluntly: “Please go away. Please.”
Emanuel Germanis, CEO and co-founder of Revo Property, says the rental market is currently so cutthroat that tenants are offering more than the asking price just to lock in a lease.
This is driving up rental prices and reducing long-term rental stock, making it difficult for locals, particularly middle-income earners, to secure affordable housing.
The rise of digital nomads also stands to drive foreign investment in the local property market, where properties are purchased by foreigners to offer as spaces that digital nomads can rent for the duration of their stay. In many cases, very little of that shorter-term rental revenue enters our country’s tax system, Viljoen added.
She expects South Africa’s tax authorities will start to find ways to keep these digital nomad-induced revenue dilemmas in check.
In fact, Daily Maverick reports that Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis is keen to put everyone on an equal footing by implementing suitable taxes on short-term rentals.
Hill-Lewis says a process is under way to change tariffs for those operating short-term rentals, adding that there needs to be an “equal playing field” in the accommodation sector.
The mayor said a process was underway to convert “permanent Airbnbs where people are not just renting out a room or renting out their granny flat” from residential to commercial tariffs.
“You can’t come into a very tourism-rich market and basically run a small hotel… if you’re running a permanent Airbnb, that’s what it is, but you’re not taxed like a hotel, you’re taxed like a private house,” he said.
The issue was even raised in Parliament, in October 2024. The Department of Tourism intends to support the long-term rental market by preventing large property owners from monopolising the housing supply.
They plan to do this by introducing threshold-based rules, balancing market access with regulation and public interest.
Still, Southern Africa Tourism Services Association (Satsa) chief executive David Frost insists the benefits of welcoming remote workers to Cape Town far outweigh the potential downsides. For example, their presence has the potential to reduce the effect of seasonal fluctuations.
“By proactively addressing concerns and implementing strategies to ensure the influx of nomads positively impacts all residents, South Africa can become a model for sustainable and inclusive economic development in the era of remote work,” Frost noted.
I don’t know about you, but my water gun is loaded just in case this becomes a pipe dream.
[Sources: News24 & Mail&Guardian & Daily Maverick]
