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Riverside

A suburb with more affordable property values and well-connected public transport relative to Cape Town.

Neighbourhood data for Riverside
Safety data not available. Property, school, and service data shown below.
Property2-400kTop 87%Schools1nearbyHealthcare1 facilitieswithin 5 kmCouncilBelow avg complaints2d median resolutionTransportMinibus taxi coveragewell-connected area

The neighbourhood

What's it like to live here?

Riverside is a neighbourhood in Helderberg, Cape Town, where property values place it among the more affordable areas in Cape Town. The area's safety profile is well above the city average for reported safety. There are several places of worship in the area.

How is the area changing?

In Riverside, crime is rising based on the most recent quarterly comparison. Property values have grown above inflation between valuation rolls.

What should buyers know?

Riverside is served by schools within reach. In this area, service complaints are generally resolved within a few days. The suburb has a healthcare facility within reach.

Neighbourhood summary generated from StreetSignal data and reviewed by our team.

These statistics describe the suburb as a whole. Conditions vary between streets and neighbourhoods within any suburb.

For home buyers & families

Is Riverside safe?

Safety index suppressed
Insufficient data. riverside makes up a very small share of the Macassar police precinct, so we cannot reliably separate its crime data from the rest of the precinct. Rather than show a score that could be misleading, we have withheld it.

Source: SAPS via DataFirst · Q4 2025/2026

FOR BUYERS & INVESTORS

What do properties cost in Riverside?

13th percentile

The median property value in Riverside is R460K. Property values have grown by 17.8% per year since 2018.

A 17.8% annual growth rate (CAGR) over the valuation period.
Value band distribution – Riverside properties (GV2022)

Property values are based on the City of Cape Town's 2022 General Valuation roll. GV is an assessed value for municipal rating purposes; transaction prices frequently exceed GV. Recent sales transaction data and rental market data are not available as open data in South Africa.

Median GV2022
R460,000
Value growth (CAGR 2018–2022)
+17.8% per year↑ Growing
City-wide value percentile
13th percentile
Dominant value band
2-400k
Source
CCT GV 2022 · Open Data Policy 27781
Vintage
General Valuation 2022 (municipal valuation, not current market price)

Source: City of Cape Town GV2022

FOR RESIDENTS

What do utilities cost in Riverside?

Computed from City of Cape Town billing data
Water
R112 / month
83% below city median
Electricity
This area is supplied by Eskom. City of Cape Town electricity billing data is not available.
Water trend:Dec 2025: R138Jan 2026: R112Feb 2026: R37

Monthly cost per account from City of Cape Town billing data. Water coverage: 647 suburbs. Electricity coverage: 384 suburbs.

INVESTMENT ACTIVITY

Development activity in Riverside

↑ Increasing

Riverside had 5 building plans approved in the last three financial years (FY22/23 to FY24/25), averaging 2 per year. Most were renovations and extensions.

3-year approvals
5
Annual average
2/yr
Avg project value
R437K

Building plans approved by the City of Cape Town (2014-2025). Approvals indicate planned investment, not completed construction. This data reflects formal building activity only and does not capture informal construction, backyard dwellings, or building work undertaken without a formal plan submission. In areas with high informality, actual construction activity may be substantially higher than these figures suggest. Source: CoCT Building Development Management (DAMS).

FOR PARENTS

How are schools in Riverside?

1 school nearby

Riverside has 1 school within reach. Schools include Macassar Primêre Skool.

Matric results: pass rate data currently covers 157 of 744 suburbs.Riverside will surface when DBE suburb-level data is processed in the next pipeline run. About coverage ›
  • Q5
    Macassar Primêre Skool
    Public · Grades R–7 · 1,016 learners · 31.8:1 learner-educator ratio
    Quintile 5School fees apply

Quintile 5 is the highest government-funding category - fees apply, but these are the best-resourced public schools in South Africa. Rankings set by the WCED against community socioeconomic index. Learner-educator ratio (LER) is from EMIS Q2 2025; under 30:1 is favourable by WCED standards, over 40:1 indicates strained capacity. What quintile means ›

Source: DBE EMIS · Q2 2025

FOR COMMUTERS

How connected is Riverside?

Connected

Riverside has 22 minibus taxi routes.

Taxi connectivityRanks this suburb's taxi route access against all 744 Cape Town suburbs. Based on routes matched by name and within 500m of suburb centre. Large suburbs may have higher actual connectivity than shown.Full methodology ›

Connected
22 routes
64th percentile · 20 destinations
Routes pass through Riverside but may not originate or terminate here. Connectivity index reflects geographic proximity to route corridors.
Blackheath, Eerste river, Eerste rivier stasie, Firgrove, Khayelitsha, Kramat +14 more
Based on CCT minibus taxi route data. Routes matched by name and spatial proximity (500m). Methodology ›

Commute mode data is not available for this suburb. The CCT Household Survey covers 163 survey areas; this suburb is outside the surveyed areas.

Source: City of Cape Town Open Data · 2024

FOR RESIDENTS

How responsive are municipal services in Riverside?

Responsive

The City of Cape Town resolves service requests in Riverside in a median of 2 days, compared to the city-wide median of 1 day. This is based on 2,093 service requests to the City of Cape Town.

Computed from City of Cape Town service request data
Below-average municipal responsiveness. A 2-day median resolution is slower than the city median – infrastructure complaints take meaningfully longer to resolve.
2
Median days to resolve
City median: 1
39th
Percentile
across Cape Town
23%
Resolved
same day
Sewerage overflow (35%)Street lights out (6%)Damaged Bin - 240L (5%)Customer reconnection request (5%)Stolen Bins - 240L (4%)
Service requests logged
2 093
Requests resolved
81% (1 689 of 2 093)
75% resolved within
7 days
90% resolved within
19 days
Source
CCT service request database
Community & faith

Places of worship

3 registered
Christian
3

Places of worship per suburb from City of Cape Town open data, supplemented with OpenStreetMap data (© OpenStreetMap contributors). Coverage: 373 of 744 suburbs.

Municipal complaints

Complaints & top issues

Below city average
Complaint rate How is this calculated?
0.0 per 1,000 households
Total complaints
2 086
Unresolved
19.0%

Top issues: Sewerage overflow (727), Street lights out (118), Damaged Bin - 240L (112)

Source: City of Cape Town C3 service requests

MUNICIPAL FINANCE

Municipal debt in Riverside

37% below city median
Computed from City of Cape Town financial data

Municipal debt in Riverside averages R5 580 per account, compared to the city median of R8 815.

R5 580
per account
37% below city median
Trend:Mar 2026: R5 551Apr 2026: R5 580May 2026: R5 690
Breakdown as of May 2026
Property rates
R705 643
Electricity
R0
Water
R2 557 882
Refuse
R896 880
Sewerage
R1 108 820
City-wide cleaning
R5 511
Improvement district
R0

Outstanding municipal arrears from City of Cape Town financial records. Coverage: 741 suburbs. Per-account figures available for 582 suburbs.

FOR FAMILIES

What services are near Riverside?

Some services nearby

Healthcare access

1 within 5km
Nearest public
Macassar Clinic · Clinic · 0.5 km
Nearest private
Mediclinic Strand · Private Hospital · 8.7 km
Public facilities
1
Private facilities
0

This suburb has public healthcare access but no private facilities within 5 km.

The nearest fire station to Riverside is Macassar, 0.4 km away. The nearest public pool is Khayelitsha Swimming Pool, 8.3 km away. The nearest clinic is Macassar Clinic, 0.5 km away.

Nearest clinic
Macassar Clinic · 0.5 km
Nearest library
Macassar · 0.3 km
Nearest park / open space
Musica Park · 0.32 km

Fire station

0.4
km to nearest
fire station
Macassar
community station
within-5km
response
category

Cape Town has 32 fire stations serving 744 suburbs. Source: CCT open data.

Public swimming pools

8.3
km to nearest
public pool
0
pools
within 5 km
2
pools
within 10 km
Nearest pool
Khayelitsha Swimming Pool

Cape Town operates 35 public swimming pools. Source: CCT open data.

Distances straight-line from suburb centroid.

Source: City of Cape Town facility registry

Nearby suburbs

Chris Hani Park507m · R190K
→
Deaconville657m · R590K
→
New Scheme872m · R720K
→
New Macassar990m · R550K
→
Brandwacht1.1km · R650K
→
Similar safety & property profile

Similar suburbs

5 matches
MamreR2-400k
35→
SeawindsR2-400k
23→
SherwoodR2-400k
41→
Kuilsrivier South SmallholdingsR4-600k
→
Wimbledon EstateR2-400k
31→
Explore surrounding areas

Bordering suburbs

2 adjacent

Suburbs that border or sit adjacent to Riverside. Each has its own safety profile, property market, and service data.

Chris Hani ParkMacassar

Data as of: Property: GV2022 | Schools: EMIS Q2 2025 | Facilities: March 2026 | Water billing: Dec 2020 - Feb 2026 | Municipal arrears: Jan 2025 - May 2026

Next refresh: when SAPS publishes Q1 2026/2027 (typically about 3 months after the period closes).

Data sources & legal attribution
SAPS Crime StatsCCT Open DataStats SADBE SchoolsCCT Service Requests

South African Police Service, via DataFirst (UCT). SAPS crime statistics, 2019-2026 [dataset]. DOI: 10.25828/5MAW-4H90. CC-BY 4.0.

City of Cape Town. City of Cape Town open data, 2022–2025 [dataset]. CCT Open Data Policy 27781.

Statistics South Africa. Stats SA Census 2022, 2022 [dataset]. Stats SA standard terms (permissive). Analysis is the user's own and not endorsed by Stats SA.

Department of Basic Education, EMIS (Western Cape Q2 2025; Gauteng Q3 2025). DBE EMIS masterlist and public school data, 2023-2025 [dataset]. Source. CC-BY 4.0.

City of Cape Town. CCT Service Requests (C3), 2025–2026 [dataset]. CCT Open Data Policy 27781.

Spot an error or have a correction? Email [email protected].

Building on this data? Access all 744 suburbs via the free REST API or explore commercial access.
Explore rankings:Safest suburbsBest for familiesAffordable + safe

Some metrics for this suburb use estimated values.Full methodology ›

This map is available on desktop browsers. For assistance interpreting location data, email usor visit the data sources page.

Riverside, Cape Town

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