Hot property in cosmopolitan Cape Town CBD

Although rapid residential property price rise stories have been rolling off the press almost weekly for over two years now, it is possible that the performance of the large luxurious freestanding homes of Oranjezicht, Vredehoek, Higgovale and Gardens has outstripped those of almost all other Cape Town property.

This apartment in Zonnebloem, Cape Town, has an open-plan kitchen. It is on sale for R960 000 - click here to view.

This is according to Alisdair Crofton, the RawsonProperty Group’s franchisee for Cape Town CBD, who says if you bought one of these gracious three or four bedroom homes in this area a few years ago, you would probably have paid in the region of R4 million or slightly less.

Today, on the rare occasion that such homes do come up for sale, he says they sell for around R6.5 million or more.

“What is more, this level of price increase is encountered virtually across the board, even when the homes need a fairly large capital injection to make them more liveable and chic.”

Crofton says almost all the homes in the area have seen their values double in the last five years, but the fastest rises have always been experienced for homes which have character, sea and mountain views and off-street parking and garaging.

He says these type of sought-after homes fall into two main categories: the older houses, some of which date back to the Victorian era, but almost all of which have been upgraded fairly regularly, and the more modern homes built in the last two decades. As often as not, these have considerable architectural merit and are definitely among the frontrunners in Cape Town for design innovation.

This two bedroom apartment in Vredehoek, Cape Town, is on sale for R1.87 million - click here to view.

Many of the homes in the area have been featured in upmarket lifestyle magazines and the area’s architects have garnered numerous awards, he says.

In the current situation, the owners of such homes are usually reluctant to sell. They may well, and often do, agree to a free valuation. They will usually be impressed by the prices achievable today, says Crofton.

However, on reflection they will realise that they have come to appreciate the CBD more on account of its cosmopolitan lifestyle and its closeness to the beaches, mountains and the city’s action spots, whether commercial or extramural. And so they decide they do not want to leave, even when they get older, he says.

“One of the things that struck me soon after I started working in this area is how international it has become. When one canvasses for a property, one finds oneself time and again dealing with Germans, French, Italian, British and Asian owners and residents, and it has to be said that they often give a certain sophisticated, exotic flavour to the CBD lifestyle.”

Asked whether the sectional title units for rent in the CBD area are as sought after and successful as the freestanding homes, Crofton says their popularity continues to grow. In the last two years it has been greatly boosted by the increasing numbers of UCT students who live in this area, and have often come because of the shortage and high prices of rentals in the central Cape Peninsula suburbs.

Almost invariably, he says they find the CBD units convenient, especially for travelling to or from the UCT campuses as they are always going in the opposite direction of the morning and evening traffic flow. This means that UCT is not more than 15 or 20 minutes away for most of them.