SA's corporate executives, entrepreneurs and investors are discreetly queuing to view some of the country's priciest homes, according to estate agents.

The interested buyers are scouting for luxury homes in some of the country's most sought-after addresses, including Clifton and Fresnaye, on Cape Town's Atlantic seaboard.

Other suburbs include Sandhurst and Hyde Park, in northern Johannesburg, and Umhlanga and Ballito in KwaZulu-Natal.

Some of the country's top real estate brokers, including Seeff Properties, Pam Golding Properties and Sotheby's International Realty SA, are fielding an increasing number of calls from wealthy local and foreign buyers.

Three estate agents have said that there are plenty of wealthy people still willing to part with their money ? and many don't even haggle about the prices.

Some of the mega homes on the market include:

Two months ago, Business Times reported that a total of R6.2-billion worth of residential property sales in nine of the country's top addresses were recorded between January last year and July this year.

R845-million worth of homes bought

The suburbs included Clifton, Camps Bay, Bishopscourt and Constantia in Cape Town; Sandhurst, Hyde Park and Westcliff in Johannesburg; Waterkloof in Pretoria and Umhlanga near Durban.

Research provided by The Knowledge Factory, which compiles the SA Property Transfer Guide, also showed that more than R845-million worth of homes were bought in these areas in just seven months this year.

Yesterday, Seeff Properties chairman Samuel Seeff said his company's books had almost R1-billion worth of premier properties.

"Over the past few years, there has been a significant increase in the prices of premier properties, particularly at the top end of this market.

"South Africa offers exceptional value compared to premium properties in top cities around the world," he said.

Growing demand by jet setters

"So, whereas our rand-per-square metre rate at the upper end of our market is anywhere between R60 000 and R100 000 per square metre, this could be doubled, trebled, even quadrupled in cities such as London, Paris, Cannes, Sydney and Hong Kong," he said.

Seeff said there was a growing demand by international jet setters for luxury homes in South Africa.

The demand has led to more than 3000 luxury apartments and mansions being built on subdivided properties in the country's top nine exclusive suburbs since 2007, according to The Knowledge Factory.

The world's richest people have remained committed to property, according to independent global property consultancy Knight Frank's 2009 Wealth Report Attitudes Survey.

Pam Golding Properties' Western Cape managing director, Laurie Wener, said that in most of the top-end suburbs in Cape Town, including Clifton, Fresnaye, Camps Bay and Bishops-court, "buyers may come in looking for bargains, but once they realise the sellers are not in a hurry, they often revisit their offers and come back later with a higher price."

Business Times