Cape Town Rental Market (Q2 2026)
Western Cape, the highest average rent of any province
≈ €674 / $758
Year to Q2 2026 (PayProp)
TPN Q3 2025
Median Rent by District (Feb 2026 to Oct 2026)
| District | 1 Bedroom | 2 Bedroom | Neighbourhoods |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atlantic Seaboard | R19,500–40,000 | R32,000–85,000 | 5 |
| Cape Winelands | R14,000–24,000 | R17,500–22,000 | 2 |
| Southern Suburbs | R13,000–21,000 | R18,000–28,000 | 4 |
| City Bowl | R12,500–19,000 | R19,000–28,000 | 5 |
| False Bay | R12,000–17,750 | R16,000–22,000 | 3 |
| South Peninsula | R16,000 | R20,500 | 1 |
| Northern Suburbs | R8,250–16,000 | R11,000–18,000 | 3 |
| Woodstock & East | R9,000–13,500 | R15,500–18,000 | 2 |
| Helderberg | R10,500 | R15,000 | 1 |
| Cape Flats | R3,500–7,400 | R5,500–10,000 | 2 |
Median asking rents per suburb (Property24 and partner listings), aggregated to district ranges. Same source as the neighbourhood pages.
Rental Growth: 1, 3, 5 Years
| Period | From | To | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Year (Q2 2025–Q2 2026) | R11,454 | R12,561 | +9.7% |
| 3 Years (Q2 2023–Q2 2026) | R9,730 | R12,561 | +29.1% |
| 5 Years (Q4 2020–Q2 2026) | R9,253 | R12,561 | +35.8% |
The Western Cape is SA's most expensive rental province: R12,561 average in Q2 2026, +9.7% YoY (PayProp).
Western Cape Average Rent (2020-2025)
Source: PayProp Rental Index
Inside Airbnb: Cape Town Data
About Inside Airbnb
Inside Airbnb is a project that publishes data on how Airbnb affects residential communities, and campaigns on the issue. Its tagline: "Adding data to the debate."
It wants data to help communities understand, decide on and control how homes are rented out to tourists. The data is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.
What is STR? STR stands for Short-Term Rental: properties rented nightly or weekly through platforms like Airbnb, as opposed to traditional long-term leases (typically 6-12 months).
as of September 2026
as of September 2026
as of September 2026
as of September 2026
≈ €102 / $115
Airbnb Listing Growth: 1, 3, 5 Years
| Period | From | To | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Year (Sep 2025 to Sep 2026) | 26,877 | 27,760 | +3.3% |
| 3 Years (Dec 2022 to Sep 2026) | ≈ 16,000 | 27,760 | ≈ +74% |
| 5 Years (Dec 2021 to Sep 2026) | ≈ 12,000 | 27,760 | ≈ +131% |
Net change from the table, rounded to the nearest hundred: the earlier counts are estimates.
The September 2026 count and the one a year earlier are Inside Airbnb snapshots. The 3- and 5-year starting counts are approximate estimates, so those changes are approximate too.
Listing Type Breakdown
| Type | Count | % |
|---|---|---|
| Entire home/apartment | 23,458 | 84.5% |
| Private room | 4,161 | 15.0% |
| Shared room | 58 | 0.2% |
| Hotel room | 83 | 0.3% |
| Total | 27,760 | 100% |
Host Concentration
| Host Type | Hosts | % |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-listing hosts | 3,615 | 25.8% |
| Single-listing hosts | 10,418 | 74.2% |
25.8% of hosts have more than one listing, but together they offer 62% of all listings.
Council Wards with the Most Airbnb Listings
| Area | Airbnb listings | Median/night | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CBD / Woodstock / Green Point Ward 115 | 6,192 | R1,768 |
| 2 | Sea Point / Camps Bay / Fresnaye Ward 54 | 4,328 | R2,972 |
| 3 | Gardens / Vredehoek / Oranjezicht Ward 77 | 1,648 | R2,000 |
| 4 | Melkbosstrand / Sunningdale / Bloubergstrand Ward 23 | 1,474 | R1,794 |
| 5 | Muizenberg / Kalk Bay / St James Ward 64 | 1,232 | R1,809 |
| 6 | Hout Bay / Llandudno Ward 74 | 1,217 | R3,305 |
| 7 | Ocean View / Glencairn / Simon's Town Ward 61 | 1,080 | R2,600 |
| 8 | Milnerton Central / Royal Ascot Ward 55 | 903 | R1,779 |
| 9 | Parklands / Sunningdale / West Beach Ward 107 | 845 | R1,825 |
| 10 | Constantia / Wynberg / Newlands Ward 62 | 709 | R4,831 |
Source: Inside Airbnb, September 2026, listings grouped by council ward. The top three wards hold 43.8% of all listings.
Listings by Ward
Airbnb Listings, 2016–2026
The last point is the Inside Airbnb snapshot of September 2026. The earlier points are rounded estimates, not snapshot counts, so read them as a rough trend only.
Global City Comparison
Cape Town Airbnb Hotspots
Do Short-Term Rentals Push Up Rents?
This section looks at how the growth in short-term rentals relates to the long-term rental market. In busy tourist areas the two appear linked, but many factors affect rents, so the data does not show that one causes the other.
Inner City Concentration
- Ward 115 (CBD and Foreshore): 6,192 Airbnb listings in September 2026 (Inside Airbnb)
- The City's plan for the CBD (Local Spatial Development Framework, approved in October 2025) says 70% of inner-city homes are either hotel-managed or on Airbnb (GroundUp, November 2025)
- The housing group Ndifuna Ukwazi says Airbnb listings in the city centre and along the Atlantic seafront have grown by 190% since 2022 (Business Report, December 2025)
Sources: Inside Airbnb; GroundUp, 18 November 2025; Business Report, 23 December 2025
STR vs Long-Term Rent Premium
| Area | Airbnb/night | Monthly rent | STR 30-night |
|---|---|---|---|
| Camps Bay | R2,972 | R22,500 | R89,160 |
| Sea Point | R2,972 | R20,500 | R89,160 |
| City Bowl | R1,768 | R15,000 | R53,040 |
| Observatory | R1,272 | R14,500 | R38,160 |
Nightly prices are ward medians (Inside Airbnb, September 2026); rents are one-bedroom suburb medians (February 2026 to September 2026). The 30-night column assumes every night is booked. At these prices, 7 to 11 booked nights a month bring in as much as a month's long-term rent, before platform fees, cleaning and management costs.
Research Findings (Global)
- For every 10% increase in Airbnb listings, long-term rents in a typical US neighbourhood rise by about 0.18% (Barron, Kung and Proserpio, 2021)
- Each commercial Airbnb listing displaces 0.23 to 0.37 long-term rental units (Berlin study, Duso and others, 2024)
- Each commercial Airbnb listing raises rent per square metre by 1.3 to 2.4% (same Berlin study)
Note: Cape Town-specific causal studies are limited. Multiple factors affect housing prices.
Sources
Short-Term Rental Data
Rental Market Data
Research & Reporting
- GroundUp: Inner city Cape Town
- Business Report: Housing Crisis (Dec 2025)
- City of Cape Town Local Spatial Development Framework
€ and $ figures are converted at the exchange rate of the last data refresh.