Bartlett lists Cape Town Bishopscourt estate at R189m, nearly double 2024 purchase price

British entrepreneur Steven Bartlett, founder of The Diary of a CEO, has listed his seven-bedroom Bishopscourt estate in Cape Town for R189 million through Pam Golding Properties, according to the Mail & Guardian. The property sits on an erf of 7,448 square metres on the slopes of Table Mountain and includes 9.5 bathrooms, 12 parking spaces, padel and squash courts, a gym, heated and plunge pools, a spa room, wine cellar and cinema.

Deeds records cited by the Mail & Guardian show Bartlett bought the estate for roughly R93.3 million in 2024, making the asking price an increase of about 103 percent in under two years. The last municipal valuation on record, from 2018, put the property at R20.3 million, a rates figure that the publication notes runs years behind what buyers are paying.

The listing has reignited debate about how foreign wealth moves through South African property. Seeff Property Group's Francois Venter told the Mail & Guardian that Bishopscourt property sold for an average of R30 million in the first quarter, almost three times the average of around R11 million in 2020.

Cape Town's high-end market has been strong, with record prices in the Atlantic Seaboard and Newlands and developments selling out quickly, but Bishopscourt is one of the city's most tightly held, heritage-dense suburbs, where a doubling in value is not typical market movement, the report notes.

Commentary on the sale argues the outcome matters beyond one transaction, because a single asking price moving at that multiple can shift the benchmark against which valuations, rates assessments and negotiations on the street are judged. Bartlett's spokesperson declined to comment on the sale, and the final sale price has not been disclosed.