SOUTH AFRICA – HOUSE & LAND MARKET

Ever seen those TV programs called “Homes Abroad” or “A Place in the Sun”, because they will have certainly featured South Africa as an ideal house buying location and what a great location it is too.

South Africa has so much to offer, including – long warm months of endless sunshine, incredible ever-changing scenery, long deserted beaches, diverse cultures, fabulous food and wine, safaris and wild game watching, many adventure sports or places to totally chillout at; but best of all for Europeans – huge open spaces of countryside and empty roads with no traffic jams.

Add to that, that the house prices here are a bargain compared to the northern hemisphere, where house prices are exorbitant.

Many people have realised that South Africa is an oasis and have been quick to snap up properties here. Favourite location for many is the cosmopolitan and exciting city of Cape Town, but this has slightly over-heated the market in the last 5 years, pushing up prices quickly. Thankfully tho’ just an hour or so away from the buzz of the city centre there are many bargains.

Somerset West which is just 45 minutes east from Cape Town sits on the sea of False Bay or Hermanus with the pretty Walker Bay coast, which is 1½ hours drive away. Each town has many desirable houses on the market that are easily within the price reach of many.

Prices in Hermanus currently start for 2 bed apartments at around R600,000 (£45,000), or 2 bed houses at around the R1 million (£75,000). Obviously there are many properties above these price tags but look what you get for your money – huge plots that can easily squeeze in a swimming pool and second property / “granny apartment”, with neighbours so far away. Beaches and coastlines that are so close-by, that a stroll along them could be a delightful daily ritual. Towns where there are parking spaces wherever you go and excellent restaurants that cater for all tastes.

Picturesque vineyards and wineries are everywhere and wine tasting is a must-do activity all year round.

The buying process is quicker and easier too, with most transfers taking only 6 to 8 weeks from offer to moving in date.

If this all sounds great (and it is) you had better act fast, because prices are on the rise and are continuing to do so. For example, Cape Town’s city bowl increased by a whopping 60% in 2004 and plots of land are heading upwards fast too, with some appreciating at 20% to 30% per year.

With South Africa’s growing black middle-class having more disposal income, they are also getting in on the act, as they are able to afford and are considering house purchases for the first time.

 

Below is a recent article from the Cape Town, Sunday Times Newspaper –

The super-rich home in on South Africa

Cape Town, Sunday Times, 18 March 2007 (by - Simpiwe Piliso)
Local properties costing more than R100 million featured on Forbes’s list of most expensive homes in the world.
The search for the super-wealthy client, with assets totalling at least $30-million, has hit the South African property market.
Estate agents are discreetly scouring for buyers to splash out a staggering R600-million on four luxury estates — two of which have cracked the latest Forbes list of the priciest homes on the international market.
Forbes has listed a private game farm and a wine estate for R185-million and R123-million, respectively.
A $6.4-million (R47.3-million) home in Umdloti near Durban also scored a mention.
Lucy Maher, Forbes’s lifestyle editor, said the annual property list was generally restricted to apartments and homes, but that “ranches or vineyards” now featured when the home on the site was worthy of such a mention.
A R185-million home near Plettenberg Bay has 12 bedrooms and stables, on a 1294ha estate. It is listed as: “Game farm complete with roaming lions, rhinos, buffaloes and leopards.”
A R123-million wine estate in Stellenbosch sits on 202ha and features a thatched manor built in the 1700s, extensive gardens, a game park and a wine cellar.
Maher conceded that the Forbes list did not include the most expensive homes in the world because owners in that category tended to sell quietly to “pre-selected” buyers.
Local estate agents with these properties listed in their books have declined to comment, citing non-disclosure agreements with the owners.
House price indicators in the latest edition of The Economist, show that the average price of a house in South Africa increased by 351% between 1997 and 2006.
Knight Frank, an international real estate company, recently called the country one of the quickest growing real estate markets in the world.
The Ritztrade International, a brokering service company, estimates the average house price in South Africa will be R1-million by 2010 — pocket change for the ultra-rich.

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