RE/MAX Bay Properties broker/owner Jean Botha said even without the impact of the Coega scheme, the PE market had been transformed from the relative backwater of only a few years ago, and prices and development had accelerated across the board.

Incentives included the discovery of PE as a tourist destination, the city's export boom in automotive parts and the emergence of a growing middle-class of buyers.

However, it was clear Coega had further kick-started demand in areas such as Bluewater Bay, which was ideally placed as a dormitory town for the new export complex, as well as the PE beachfront, Walmer, Summerstrand and Mill Park.

Beachfront properties in particular were in high demand across the price spectrum, from blue-collar workers with subsidised home loans to up-market executives of satellite industries servicing Coega. A sellers' market had clearly emerged and stock was in short supply.

Developers had identified a gap and significant new development was taking place, notably in terms of townhouse clusters. Prices of over R1 million, an unheard of level in PE just a few years ago, were becoming quite common.

A Summerstrand home sold recently for R2 million.