South Africa’s top-performing municipality is a coastal gem

The Auditor General of South Africa (AGSA) recently released its annual review of local municipalities, presenting the audit results for the 2023/24 financial year.

According to BusinessTech, the audit named the West Coast as the best-run municipality in the country.

The AGSA identified 25 municipalities that achieved consecutive clean audits, 17 of which are located in the Western Cape, more than the combined total of all other provinces.

The best-run municipality and how much it costs to live there

The West Coast District Municipality (WCDM), which stretches from the northern edge of the Cape Town Metropole to the border of the Northern Cape, was given the ‘best-run’ status out of 257 municipalities in South Africa.

This status has also drawn many property buyers to the region, with Pierre Germishuys, from Seeff West Coast, revealing that between 2021 and 2023, the West Coast experienced a property boom.

“Due to the high demand and boom in sales volumes, there was notable price growth over the five-year period from 2019 to 2024,” Germishuys told BusinessTech. 

“The average property price in the broader West Coast and Swartland area rose from around R836,000 to R1.4 million – an increase of about 67%.” he also said.

Some popular towns for buyers include the coastal gems of Paternoster, Langebaan, Saldanha Bay, and Yzerfontein.