Cape Town’s housing market finally seems to be emerging from its three-year slump. Until early 2018, the city was widely regarded as SA’s top property investment destination. Between 2012 and 2017, Cape Town house prices virtually doubled and regularly topped UK-based Knight Frank’s global house price charts, placing the city as the best-performing in the world.

But the upward march in sales volumes and prices came to an abrupt end in 2017/2018, when Cape Town was hit by drought. The city’s prospects as a semigration hotspot among upcountry buyers further faded on the back of rising political infighting in the DA-led local government...