Over the past two decades, South Africa’s coastal towns have experienced massive development and growth – with over 33% of our population now residing within a 10km radius of our 3 000km shoreline.
Where, traditionally, it would have been an older demographic moving to the seaside to retire it is now increasingly young families that are packing their bags to relocate to the coast. The Western Cape is a prime example – almost a quarter of permanent residents in Hermanus are now under 35. In Langebaan, it is about 33%; and over 40% in the Blouberg area.
This semigration is fast overtaking the beach holiday home or weekend getaway market, with out of towners looking to settle now making up nearly 70% of home buying in hidden gems like Mossel Bay and Port Alfred.
With this migration comes an automatic boost to the micro economies of the areas. KZN has experienced the largest recorded growth with this in the commercial and retail sector recently as the Ballito and Umhlanga corridor is the fastest growing wealth market in South Africa – rising by 25% in the last 10 years.
Paul Keursten, CEO and co-founder of Workshop17, says that this noticeable growth is due to the semigration of mostly remote workers and larger companies who are looking for ways to create more balanced lifestyles for themselves and their staff, and want to make use of the environment that a coastal region has to offer.
These “zoom towns”, as he calls them – a term originally coined in America, but which is becoming colloquial and describes a community that experiences a significant population increase due to an influx of hybrid workers – are chosen for the convenience of having all the big city services in one place, but still being able to include sports and leisure activities on a regular basis.
Jayshree Naidoo, a transfer from Johannesburg to Ballito herself and owner of entrepreneurship development training company YIEDI, says that she has found that the increase of remote workers in Ballito creates a tone where entrepreneurs are very driven by their work ethic, but are also focused on public collaboration.
“We all have a deep respect for where we spend our time and can now be more generous within our networks,” says Naidoo. “It’s possible to be passionate about business, products and services – but equally passionate about causes that have an impact on the environment, as well as social issues.”