A rare residential stand in the ultra-exclusive beach bungalow section of Clifton, the international jet-set playground on Cape Town’s Atlantic Seaboard, is to be sold at auction next month.
And cutting months, if not years, off development time in one of Cape Town’s most stringently regulated zoning areas, council-approved plans for a Vernon Head-designed five-bedroom house will be included in the sale.
Rodney Beck, the High Street Auctions Director who manages the premier property company’s Western Cape portfolio, says there is almost no vacant land left in Clifton as a whole, but even scarcer are plots in the historic bungalow section between Victoria Road and the ocean.
“These sites are almost impossible to buy on the open market,” High Street said in a statement. “We’ve done the research and according to real estate sales analysis databases such as PropStats, only two Clifton bungalow plots have changed hands in the past decade. In fact in the whole of Clifton fewer than 10 vacant land transactions have been recorded since 2009, with the total value of these properties in the region of R200-million.”
“Vacant stands on the beach in Clifton are therefore unquestionably the rarest and most exclusive residential development sites in South Africa. The tiny enclave around 4th Beach, particularly, is in such demand that investors from across the world are prepared to pay a premium of millions for the most dilapidated, ramshackle cottages, which they then demolish because buyers’ only interest is the land on which they stand.”
Last year the City of Cape Town made R20m from the sale of an original unrenovated two-bedroom “holiday cottage” on a postage stamp 357m² erf – significantly smaller than the one going under the High Street hammer on September 5.
Beck says the stand on auction next month is a freehold title located on Clifton’s trendy 4th Beach, and measures 417m². Bidding will open at R15-million.
“Plans for a show-stopper triple-storey house on the site have already been drawn up and approved by the City of Cape Town, so whoever is lucky enough to buy the property can start developing immediately.
“The design is the brainchild of Vernon Head, the first South African to win a merit award in the prestigious Willem Van Allen Design Competition in New York, and features a glass elevator, a gym, expansive entertainment areas and five en-suite bedrooms.
“The total blueprint floor area, including balconies, spans more than 470m².”
High Street Auctions Lead Auctioneer and Director Joff van Reenen says the Clifton residential development site has sparked massive interest from bidders in South Africa and abroad.
“Catalogue items of this nature are so rare and the location so desirable that we’re expecting fierce competition from bidders on the sales floors on September 5.”
Van Reenen notes that the Western Cape will be exceptionally well-represented at the company’s next auction, with the Clifton lot just one of approximately a dozen premier properties on offer across the province.
Others include luxury residential offerings in the Winelands and Bishopscourt, a development site in historic Simon’s Town and commercial opportunities across the region.
High Street will be hosting dual sales venues at the Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town and Summer Place in Johannesburg on September 5, with the auction commencing at noon sharp.
The auction will be live-streamed between the venues, as well as online. Buyers unable to attend on the day can bid by phone or make use of High Street’s virtual auction platform available from the App Store and Google Play to view properties, bid from anywhere in the world or pre-set a maximum bid and let the platform automatically tender the lowest possible winning offer on their behalf.
All bidders must pre-register for the sale with appropriate FICA documentation, and a refundable R50 000 registration deposit is payable by EFT, bank-guaranteed cheque or credit card.
Pictures: www.highstreetauctions.com