[Image: Wikimedia Commons]
Scarborough, the sleepy conservation village hugging the edge of Cape Point Nature Reserve, has quietly become the darling of deep-pocketed foreign property buyers.
According to data from Lightstone Property, released in May 2025, more than half of all homes sold in Scarborough last year went to foreigners. Yes, more than half. For a tiny surfing town nestled in nature, that’s a serious slice of the pie.
The Western Cape continues to dominate as South Africa’s prime magnet for foreign buyers, and Scarborough is leading the charge, BusinessTech reported at the time.
Designated as a conservation village in 1996, the area has somehow managed to keep its rustic charm while becoming a global property hotspot. Now that’s a neat trick.
“Over the past six years, we’ve seen a growing gap between what local buyers pay for property compared to foreign buyers,” said Hayley Ivins-Downes, Managing Executive of the Real Estate Cluster at Lightstone.
And that gap? It’s no joke. In 2024, non-resident foreigners forked out an average of just over R2.7 million per property — more than double what locals paid (R1.2 million on average). The message is clear: foreigners are better at buying big.
Scarborough’s meteoric rise is backed by the numbers. The average home price there has jumped from R2.3 million in 2016 to a jaw-dropping R7.85 million in 2025. That’s a 241% increase, and no, it’s not a typo.
In fact, as you could easily guess, the entire Cape is cashing in. All of the top 22 suburbs with the highest proportion of foreign buyers are in the Western Cape — including Chapmans Peak, Bakoven, De Waterkant, and Cape Town’s CBD.
Ivins-Downes previously pointed out that Noordhoek and Scarborough, just north of the Cape Point peninsula, had the highest average sales prices in the Western Cape after 2023. That trend hasn’t lost steam.
Meanwhile, the tide is shifting in terms of who’s buying. Foreigners without residency have now overtaken those with residency, climbing from 2.9% of buyers in 2019 to 3.7% in 2024.
Locals, meanwhile, are being nudged out — albeit slowly — as their share of the property market slid from 93.3% to 93%.
The spending habits speak volumes. Foreigners accounted for over 40% of all home purchases above R10 million in 2024, about 25% between R5 million and R10 million, and 15% for homes between R3 million and R5 million.
In other words, the pricier the pad, the more likely it’s owned by someone with a passport stamp.
“While foreign buyers remain a small segment of the market, their influence is clear in the high-end property space, especially in the Western Cape,” Ivins-Downes added. “As global interest in lifestyle and investment properties grows, this trend will likely continue in key coastal areas.”
Scarborough may still be all wild waves and eco-vibes, but behind the scenes, it’s a high-stakes real estate goldmine, and foreigners are buying in fast.
[Source: BusinessTech]
