‘We thought we were in the sticks.” That is how a Zimbali Lakes executive described moving to Ballito almost 30 years ago, when proper shopping meant a drive to uMhlanga. Today, a Club Med sits close by at Tinley Manor, a Tonino Lamborghini hotel is on the way and buyers from Texas are writing cheques for land in Zimbali Lakes.
KZN’s north runs from uMhlanga and the airport corridor up through Ballito and Salt Rock towards the Tugela River. The North Coast starts at Zimbali, though many locals stretch it down to uMhlanga.
Rainmaker Marketing’s April 2025 North Coast report, which leans on Lightstone data, says that since 2011, about 290 adults a month have moved into Ballito, Salt Rock and KwaDukuza Non-Urban, taking the adult population from just under 20 000 to almost 66 000. Much of it is semigration, South Africans moving to another province. KZN picked up about 1 300 of the movers in 2024, 800 of them from Gauteng, though the Western Cape drew almost 6 000. Neil Cocker, the vice-president of operations at Zimbali Lakes, puts much of the growth down to King Shaka International Airport. “People have worked out you can live in Ballito and get to Sandton quicker than living in Northcliff and getting into Sandton,” he says.
Rainmaker’s figures show inter-national arrivals at King Shaka International Airport grew from roughly 27 000 in 2021/22 to almost 155 000 in 2024/25. In July, Club Med opened its R2.1 billion, 400-room resort at Tinley Manor.
Schalk Theunissen, the co-founder and managing director of Devmco Group, the developer behind Sibaya Coastal City, says resort companies are approaching his company asking about opportunities. I won’t be surprised when the surrounding strip on either side of Club Med blows up with resort development.
The same thing happened in Cancun on Mexico’s coast. Today that place is a resort capital.
More than half of North Coast property now sits in gated estates. Over the year to February 2025, a sectional title unit inside a Ballito estate averaged about R3.6 million, against R2.2m outside one.
That 64% premium is the price of security and well-kept roads and parks. But growth here has moved like the N2 north in December, stop-start rather than one smooth run. Sales across the three towns peaked in 2021/22 at R5.8bn and cooled to R4.4bn by 2024/25.
Ballito sectional title prices grew roughly 4% a year between 2021 and 2024, close to inflation.
Two developments show where the big money is going — Zimbali Lakes and Sibaya Coastal City. Both started as Tongaat Hulett sugar cane land, like most big development projects on this coast (including Club Med).
IFA Hotels & Resorts, a Kuwaitgroup that built the Fairmont The Palm in Dubai, owns Zimbali Lakes. The estate has an 18-hole Ernie Els Signature Course, which opened for play in 2025, and a new clubhouse opened in April to residents and the public, complete with a Big Easy Wine Bar & Grill.
In 2003, IFA Hotels & Resorts paid $10m for half of Zimbali and committed $100m over the next decade, a big bet of confidence even then. IFA says it has invested more than R30bn across Zimbali and puts its Vision 2030 pipeline at R50bn.
Sales hit a record R280m in the first nine months of 2025 and a 2 000m² plot sold for R22.5m, which the team believes is a KZN record. Yet only about 50 families live there. Much of what has sold is land and it’s slowly developing into a neighbourhood.
The R5bn Tatali precinct includes a 20 000m² shopping centre anchored by Checkers, Woolworths and Dis- Chem, and a tunnel under the M4 leading to the beach. South Africa’s first Tonino Lamborghini hotel and branded residences are expected to sell at around R100 000/m². The latest offering from Zimbali Lakes is Vilasita, launching on 7 November, with 146 homes from R2.95m to a R55m penthouse and a ramp that lets you park outside your front door no matter which level you live on.
Further south, right on uMhlanga’s northern border, Sibaya Coastal City covers about 1 000 hectares between the Ohlanga and Mdloti rivers, including 350ha of its coastal forest. Devmco was the first developer, with OceanDune in December 2015. Buyers queued overnight and sales totalled R750m in less than a week.
When Tongaat Hulett ran into financial trouble, Devmco bought the remaining land and became master developer of the Sibaya region. It has taken back the roads, power and water services from the municipality and runs them privately. “We’re in full control now,” Theunissen said. That lets Devmco move fast.
I found the commercial side of this “city” fascinating. Devmco has broken ground on a 7 500m² office block, with another 9 000m² due within three months. Both with tenants and lease agreements locked in. Theunissen says firms are leaving uMhlanga because call centres filled offices after Covid, bringing high rental income for landlords and foot traffic but little spending for ground-floor retailers.
Devmco also plans to build three branded hotels, a 500-room resort, and a conference centre, with about 700 rooms opening by around 2029. Reefside, a new centre with Weylandts and eight other furniture and décor brands, opened in October. Theunissen says Weylandts asked Devmco to bring in its competitors because people like to compare sofas in one place. A smart move if you consider the modern shopper’s true tastes and preferences.
Then there is its latest residential star, Capri Village, a retirement village in Salta Sibaya Estate. About 200 homes have been built and the final phase, with more than 70 homes, has launched and is 60% sold out.
Market studies told Devmco that retirees wanted one- and two-bedroom homes. At the first launch, it sold none because buyers wanted room for the grandchildren. Capri Village is sectional title, so you own your home outright.
The target buyer is 55 to 75 and playing golf. A nurse checks on residents daily and sends families a monthly report; frail care is available elsewhere in the precinct and residents pay only for the care they choose. I have toured enough retirement villages to know a 60-year-old does not want cake and tea at 4pm. Rather, they want to be surrounded by action and activities. Capri Village sits inside a mixed estate with young families, retail destinations and outdoor activities.
Theunissen says more than 60% of Sibaya will remain green. A conservation trust with about 30 staff looks after the forests, which are open to the public. The dozens of snares rangers found at the start each month have gone. The precinct is being fenced and drones fly over the forest at night.
According to Property24, top Atlantic Seaboard flats sell for R100 000/m² to R127 000/m². Vilasita’s penthouse works out at about R76 000/m², against a North Coast average of about R20 000.
Theunissen reckons KZN is about half Cape Town’s price and, for the first time, he is seeing foreign buyers in droves. A woman with a visiting German consortium told him her €2m (R37m) would buy a two- or three-bedroom flat in Munich. Here, he says, it buys a four-bedroom house overlooking the sea.
The Lamborghini residences would put Zimbali Lakes at Atlantic Seaboard prices for the first time, which is either a sign the North Coast has arrived or testing what KZN buyers will pay.
With Club Med down the road, multiple residences going up, and cranes sprinkled everywhere, KZN’s north looks very much alive. Whether the next 20 years match the brochures will depend on the buyers who turn up. Let’s hope they match the billions promised.
