Stellenbosch to become the first town in SA to produce its own “green” power and eliminate load shedding are excellent news for the local property market. Reacting to the recent announcement by the Stellenbosch Municipality that it intends to become independent of Eskom and is investigating the best alternative power supply options. The biggest effects of the Covid-19 pandemic is the rapid rise in corporate acceptance of full-time remote working, which has freed large numbers of people all over the world to “de-urbanize” from big cities to smaller centers where they hope to enjoy a better quality of life. Remote workers may no longer need to live within easy reach of an office, but they do still need good internet connectivity and a reliable power supply, and the towns that can provide these will obviously reap the most benefits from the de-urbanization trend – including an increased demand for real estate, a higher property rates base and a gain in intellectual capital. Making Stellenbosch attractive to more manufacturing and high-tech companies, which currently struggle with load shedding even more than individual home-owners. This would increase employment in the town, boost the local authority’s resources even more and enable the provision of even better services to residents.
The residential property market in Stellenbosch is already recovering well from the dual blows dealt last year by the national lockdown in the second quarter and the decline in demand for local student accommodation as Stellenbosch University – like many other tertiary institutions – adapted many of its courses to online teaching and remote learning. The town is already popular among Capetonians and people from other provinces due to its picturesque location, proximity to an international airport and growing reputation as the center of technological innovation in SA. According to the latest statistics from property data company Lightstone, there were only 44 fewer property sales registered in 2020 than in 2019, despite the three-month lockdown. It also helped that home sellers became more willing to negotiate in the light of the pandemic, and we have seen average sale price of family homes decline from R4,5m at the start of 2020 to around R3,7m currently.