The art of South Africa’s super-wealthy

While the cost of living continues to rise, so does the wealth in South Africa, according to the latest New World Wealth report.

According to the Africa Wealth report, which delves into the luxury sector and habits of the continent’s super-rich, and which is published annually by the Sandton-based wealth intelligence firm, South African dollar millionaires shot up from 41,100 to 48,200 in a year.

Centi-millionaires — those who are worth $100m — grew from 112 in 2025 to 131, while the number of billionaires increased from two to four.

There are just over 127,000 millionaires living in Africa, each with liquid wealth of $1m (R16.2m) or more. This includes 374 ultra-wealthy centi-millionaires and 28 billionaires.

This means South Africa now accounts for a substantial 38% of Africa’s total millionaires and 36% of its billionaires.

Andrew Amoils, head of research at New World Wealth, said this could be attributed to the rand being stronger.

“The last time we did the report was in December with the 2024 time stamp, now it’s June 2026, so it’s 18 months later and the rand has got a lot stronger and the JSE is a lot stronger in US dollar terms. Property prices are particularly stronger in US dollar terms.”

Amoils said Johannesburg has 11,500 high net-worth individuals (HNWIs) and two billionaires, with Cape Town in second position with 9,700 HNWIs and three billionaires.

The ‘Mother City’ is the most expensive city in Africa by some margin, with prime apartment prices there now averaging around $6,000 per square metre in exclusive suburbs such as Clifton and Bantry Bay.—  Andrew Amoils, head of research at New World Wealth

“Despite a tough past two decades, Johannesburg is still the wealthiest city in Africa. The ‘City of Gold’ is the base city for the bulk of the companies listed in the JSE Top 40. Much of its wealth is located in the Sandton area, which is widely seen as the ‘richest square mile in Africa’. There are also large numbers of HNWIs living on lifestyle estates in the up-and-coming Waterfall-Midrand area, which is located on the outskirts of Greater Johannesburg.

“The ‘Mother City’ is the most expensive city in Africa by some margin, with prime apartment prices there now averaging around $6,000 per square metre in exclusive suburbs such as Clifton and Bantry Bay. Cape Town has shown impressive wealth growth over the past decade and is on track to overtake Johannesburg to become Africa’s wealthiest city by 2030.”

The report found on a global view, South Africa ranks as the 34th wealthiest country on earth when it comes to millionaire residents — just behind Poland and ahead of Turkey and Thailand.

“Art collecting is one of the top hobbies for HNWIs in South Africa. The South African fine art market is valued at over $600m as at June 2026 — this refers to the combined value of the artworks that are traded regularly at auction.”

Works by the following 10 artists are especially popular among top-end art collectors in South Africa:

Irma Stern traditionally sets the top prices at art auctions in Africa. Her paintings can fetch up to $3m each, with an average price of around $250,000 per painting.

In the future, he said, Africa’s wealth is projected to rise sharply, with billionaire numbers on the continent forecast to jump to over 120 by 2040.

“In particular, we expect strong growth in lifestyle destinations such as Cape Town, the Whale Coast, the Garden Route, the Cape Winelands, Windhoek and Swakopmund.

“Over the next decade, we expect the key wealth-creating industries in Africa to be eco-tourism and eco-estates, music and film, fintech, e-commerce, software development, AI, business process outsourcing, green tech, rare metals mining, biotech and wealth management.”

“We expect eco-estates to become significantly more popular going forward, especially among centi-millionaires and billionaires. For our purposes ‘eco-estates’ refer to estates with natural indigenous wilderness areas, strong biodiversity and vast birdlife. Notable examples include Royalston in Gqeberha and Likweti in Mpumalanga.”