St Francis Bay

St Francis Bay is a coastal holiday town in the Kouga Municipality of the Eastern Cape, about 116 km by road from Gqeberha's airport. It is best known for its village of white walls and black roofs, the Kromme River, two golf courses and a long sandy beach. The canals, Santareme and Port St Francis are all part of it.

The town is quiet for most of the year and fills up over the December and Easter holidays. Humansdorp is about 20 km away, roughly 20 minutes' drive, and Jeffreys Bay is about 16 km beyond Humansdorp.

The R330 runs from Humansdorp past the town and ends at Cape St Francis, about 10 minutes further on. Daily needs are covered in the village, with the Village Square and Rhapsody shopping centres.

St Francis Bay from the air: the beach, the white-walled village and the golf course — Photo: Servien, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

St Francis Bay at a glance

Municipality: Kouga Local Municipality, Eastern Cape
Gqeberha airport: About 116 km, roughly 80 minutes
Humansdorp: About 20 km, roughly 20 minutes
Golf: St Francis Bay Golf Club, St Francis Links
Property24, 6 October 2026: 257 for sale, average asking price R5,697,975
Suburbs: Village, canals, Santareme, Port St Francis

How did St Francis Bay get its name?

Bartolomeu Dias named the bay Golfo dos Pastores in 1488. In 1575 the Portuguese navigator Manuel Perestrelo renamed it Bahia de São Francisco, a name that then covered the whole bay including today's Jeffreys Bay.

The modern town began in 1954, when Leighton Hulett bought the land and planned a village with a marina and canals. The strict building code he started is the reason the village still looks the way it does.

Why are the houses in St Francis Bay white with black roofs?

The St Francis Aesthetic Standards (published June 2024) describe the character of the area as "white walls and high double-pitched black roofs". In the village and canals that means:

plastered walls painted untinted white only
main roofs double-pitched at 45 degrees or more
a maximum building height of 8.5 m
roofs in thatch, charcoal shingle, natural black slate, flat charcoal concrete tile, graphite-grey zinc or charcoal-grey aluminium

An Aesthetics Committee, a sub-committee of the ward committee that meets every two weeks, must approve plans before they go to Kouga Municipality. The standards are read with the Kouga Land Use Scheme 2021 and the title deeds, and the strictest of the three applies. If you are buying to build or renovate, check these first.

What is being done about St Francis Bay's beach?

The beach and the sand spit at its northern end have been losing sand for years, and a spring tide broke through the spit in July 2020. Dredging pipes arrived in July 2025 to pump sand from the Sand River delta and the Kromme River back along the spit towards Main Beach, with pumping starting later in 2025.

Property owners are also paying for a set of rock groynes to hold the sand in place, at about R150 million, through St Francis Property Owners NPC and a Special Rates Area. Construction started in August 2025.

Update, early October 2026: the river mouth and angled groynes are in place and were repaired after storms by August 2026. Work restarted at the start of October at the Anne Avenue groyne, with about 20 m left to build, after a pause while large armour rock was restocked. The Peter Crescent groyne has a temporary rock head until work resumes there.

What is there to do in St Francis Bay?

The Kromme River is navigable for well over 10 km and is used for boating, paddling and fishing. Golfers have two courses:

St Francis Bay Golf Club: opened in 1975 and redesigned as an 18-hole, par 71 course in 1999
St Francis Links: a Jack Nicklaus design that opened in 2006

Surfers use Hullets Reef, a left-hand reef break in the town, and the point breaks at Cape St Francis are minutes away.

Schools and healthcare in St Francis Bay

St Francis College, an independent school on the R330, takes children from 18 months to Grade 7. A daily school bus runs to Nico Malan High (which has boarding) and Woodridge, a private school. The nearest hospital is Life Isivivana Private Hospital in Humansdorp, with 33 beds and maternity care.

What kind of property is in St Francis Bay?

St Francis Bay has the widest choice in the area: thatched and tiled homes in the white-walled village, waterfront homes with jetties on the canals, Mediterranean-style homes and vacant plots in Santareme, apartments at Port St Francis, homes and plots on The Links golf estate, and retirement units.

Prices differ a lot between these parts of town, and canal frontage, sea views and walking distance to the beach all add value. On 6 October 2026 Property24 listed 257 properties for sale across St Francis Bay, at an average asking price of R5,697,975, a figure that blends plots, apartments and canal homes.

For a current figure on a home like yours, ask Seal Point Estates for a market value estimation.

Buying or selling in St Francis Bay?

Talk to Jal Rigaard, principal agent at Seal Point Estates, on +27 72 559 0575. No-obligation market value estimations.

View listings Get a market value estimation

Other areas we cover

Cape St Francis The lighthouse village on the headland, ringed by nature reserves.

St Francis canals Waterfront homes with private jetties onto the Kromme River.

Santareme Mediterranean-style homes and sea views across Harbour Road from the village.

Port St Francis A working chokka harbour with a marina village of apartments.

Last updated 6 October 2026. Facts on this page come from: