Bugle Sales Talk Editorial

The 99 dedicated players battled it out for two days with some incredible scores being posted. As an interesting property related question with a prize incentive for the player who managed to guess the closest answer, we asked each player to consider how many homes are currently built and complete on the estate, bearing in mind that at full capacity there are expected to be 1,355 residences.

The correct answer, to the surprise of many people who thought there were more, is 943. This was verified with the estate's building control manager last Friday. The answers provided ranged between a low of 520 and a high of 1,320 completed homes, with most folks guessing around the 1,200 homes. Of the 943 completed homes within Zimbali there are 452 Special Residential properties or what we call freehold, and 491 Sectional Title properties.

Currently there are 120 homes under construction within Zimbali with 292 residences (freehold and sectional title) still to be completed. This actually means that Zimbali is 70% built and by the end of this year with most of the current homes under construction expected to be complete, will be close to 80% built. When you consider that the first vacant land was sold in 1996 and the first home completed on the estate in 1997, it has been almost two decades of development to get to the point of maturity the estate is at currently.

For those developers looking to launch a large-scale residential development of a similar nature and sell out within a short period of time, it may be a lesson learnt to consider the life-cycle of developments such as Zimbali. The overall built environment has ended up being of a better design aesthetic and build quality had it been developed at a faster rate. What started as a largely second home destination is quickly moving to a high-end primary residence solution, with more and more people migrating down with their families and businesses from Gauteng and Pretoria.

Those that remain economically active in Gauteng are finding that it is now practical to commute between Johannesburg and Durban on a weekly basis. Five years after the opening of the King Shaka International Airport we are feeling the positive impact this major capital investment is having on property values within the greater North Coast area. The next big local investment is the R1,4bn regional shopping centre currently planned and actually under construction on the Ballito Junction site.

When you consider that the La Lucia Mall is approximately 45,000 m2 in extent, and is not small, then you start to get an idea of how large and impressive the 70,000 m2 of retail space will be that is coming to Ballito. With a total capacity of 93,000 m2 permitted on the site we can expect this mall to expand over time in the same way that Gateway has. Once the large-scale national developers start investing at this level in a destination, you can be sure that the growth will accelerate. For local businesses and property professionals this is the perfect time to be in Ballito.

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

Andreas Wassenaar

Principal - Seeff Dolphin Coast

Cell: 082 837 9094

andreasw@seeff.com