Property Talk

Author: Andreas Wassenaar
Date: 2013-11-08

I had the privilege this past weekend of attending a wedding on the picturesque Lourensford Estate in Somerset West, Cape Town. The weather can be hit and miss in November, but it delivered clear blue skies and no wind, which then makes the Cape look incredible.

We stayed at the Erinvale hotel, which was of particular interest to me, as the Erinvale Golf Estate is one of South Africa's most established residential golf estates. As I also had the opportunity to visit the suburb of Tokai, home to the flagship Steenberg Golf Estate, I could not help myself but do a deeds office analysis of these two golf estates and then compare them to Simbithi and Zimbali. Erinvale is situated in Somerset West, on the edge of the suburb and Helderberg Nature Reserve.

The well known Vergelen Wine Estate is located next to it, and the Lourensford Wine Estate borders Erinvale and is particularly impressive. My research on the recent property transfer history for Erinvale revealed that the estate is relatively small measuring 155ha in extent and with 437 tradable properties - split between 45 sectional title units and 392 freehold properties.

I immediately noticed that they had not imposed an architectural theme or language with the resulting mismatch of different designs and styles actually detracting from the overall beauty of the destination.

Once you see an estate that does not have the strict architectural guidelines we are so used to along the Dolphin Coast, you realize the wisdom of having and applying architectural controls. I am thankful that Simbith and Zimbali have been developed along design codes implemented from the outset as this adds significant value overall.

The Erinvale sales registered over the past 12 months indicate an overall average selling price of R5,154,545, with 18 sales registered this year to date . Many of the freehold transactions I picked up on were around the R4m level and typically on a site size of around 800 sqm. The sectional title units seem to trade in the R12,000 to R17,000 / sqm range, which is not dissimilar from Simbithi or Zimbali.

Where I was a little more envious was the transfer data I picked up on for Steenberg Golf Estate. Not particularly impressive in terms of location, estate size (it is only 96ha with 245 freehold properties) or architectural language, and with homes built relatively close together on sites of around 800 sqm, which we would regard as smaller than our average site size, the pricing achieved on Steenberg homes is very impressive.

The average price for those registered sales over the past 12 month period in Steenberg is R11,537,674. I noticed that the volume of trade was significantly less than I would expect, with only 12 registered sales to date this year and this is an increase on the only 7 sales registered in 2012, the 7 in 2011 and the 8 in 2010.

It does therefore seem that Steenberg is characterized by low trade volumes. This indicates either that people love their properties and tend not to sell them or that pricing is actually too high, thereby restricting sales volumes. By comparison the average price in Zimbali is R6,803,357 and there have been 80 transactions registered this year to date.

The average Simbithi price is currently R3,212,321 and 138 sales have been registered this year. I believe that our Dolphin Coast golfing and lifestyle estates offer incredible value and are aesthetically a superior product.

For further information and an interactive analysis of this article follow my blog: andreaswassenaar.blogspot.com.

Springclean

Enlarge View Link

Nissan T5ekton

Enlarge View Link