One of property’s biggest trends for 2022 was semigration with South Africans - more flexible with remote work - seeking a new life, mostly in coastal towns locally.
The first post-pandemic year has been a shift in people’s world views, the ways in which corporates operate and how people live.
While some locals are casting their nets further thinking about emigration to a new country for many, staying in South Africa is a must.
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Semigration, particularly to Cape Town, was already beginning pre-Covid however the pandemic hastened the trend.
The Insights Team from LeadHome said Covid-19 forced many companies to re-look at the way in which their employees work and allow their staff to work remotely from home.
They added that there has been considerable movement among the working class within the borders of South Africa, which gave rise to the buzz word, semigration.
To understand the semigration more, KLA conducted a survey with 380 South Africans. For the study, semigration was defined broadly as: when individuals or families move from one city/town/region to another.
The survey revealed that:
– 52% of the respondents are thinking semigrating (they are looking at their options or they are seriously thinking about it).
– 8% are actually in the process of semigrating.
– 19% have successfully semigrated recently with 93% of the respondents stating that their expectations were met, and are happy that they did it.
–10% have no desire to semigrate because they don’t want to move or they can’t afford to move. Other reasons for not semigrating include lack of flexibility to work remotely and not wanting to uproot their children.
Samuel Seeff, chairman of the Seeff Property Group rated semigration was one of the hottest trends in the South African property market for 2022.
This new trend has resulted in semigration destinations continuing to see strong property market performance despite factors such as rising interest rate and economic concerns.
According to Seeff, South Africans would rather choose semigration to emigration if they want to move elsewhere for better security, schooling and service delivery.
Here is a look at the top locations where semigration buyers are moving to:
– Cape Town.
– Mossel Bay and George.
– Winelands.
– Hermanus and Langebaan.
– Ballito.
– Umhlanga.
– Plettenberg Bay.
– Pretoria.
– Hartbeespoort.
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