The Duke, a 10-storey building on Fountain Circle, offers investors a foot into the flourishing Lower Heerengracht Foreshore buy-to-let market, as well as affordable access for first-time buyers.
Housing developers, The Mosaic Group, are responsible for redeveloping several inner-city buildings in downtown Durban. This time, they are bringing their insight, expertise and technical wizardry to Cape Town with their first of 81 luxury apartments in The Duke.
The hotel living-style apartments, situated on the corner of Cape Town’s Hans Strijdom Avenue and Lower Heerengracht, offer stunning interiors, a rooftop deck and pool, and breathtaking views of tree-lined city avenues against the backdrop of Table Mountain.
The pricing, from R1 290 000, and with no transfer duties, is well below the average of new developments in the CBD. “At about R36 000 per square metre, and with our prime location, this is an offer you wouldn’t want to miss,” says Chris Marsay, marketing manager for Mosaic Group.
The Duke on Fountain Circle is in walking distance of Cape Town’s top restaurants, bars, malls and tourism hot spots, the Cape Town International Convention Centre, the MyCiti central bus terminus, Cape Town train station, and the regional head offices of Vodacom, Standard Bank, Caltex, SARS and Investec. This prime location offers investors an opportunity to take advantage of a vibrant buy-to-let Airbnb market taking off in the lower part of the city. It also gives first-time buyers a crucial step into the notoriously expensive City Bowl real-estate market.
The Duke offers a beautiful hotel-style lobby with a 24/7 concierge service, air-conditioning throughout, a calisthenics gym, high-speed fibre, 24-hour security and ample storage-room space. Nine apartment configurations are available, with views of either Lower Heerengracht or Hans Strijdom Avenue, or both. Buyers have the option of buying an ‘interior pack’ as an add-on to the purchase price, or an unfurnished apartment.
The building was redesigned by architect Lisa Rorich, famous for her work on exquisite luxury lodges like Singita in Tanzania, and others in Botswana and the Seychelles. The interiors were created by Raewyn Hayhoe, known for her green-building specialisation and luxurious eco-friendly residential lifestyle estates.
“Lisa’s experience in designing glamorous luxury lodges, coupled with Raewyn’s considered approach to green-inspired residential design, has resulted in a tranquil urban oasis with a super-contemporary hotel-living feel,” says Marsay.
The interiors feature a muted palette of charcoal, moody greens and bronze. Polished-concrete floors, Calacatta marble vanity tops and granite countertops, honed black subway tiling, and Bordeaux Oak veneers are cleverly blended with beautiful signature features like Victoria and Albert basins, amber glass pendant cluster lights, Parisian ribbed floor-to-ceiling glass screens and Meir tiger-bronze taps. The stunning views can be enjoyed from novel window-box cushioned seats.
Alongside Mosaic Group, Lisa Rorich Architects and Evolution Architects, other members of the development team include DDK Design, Spoormaker and Partners (mechanical and electrical engineers), STBB (conveyancers), and Hulme and Associations (structural and civil engineers).
To take advantage of a pre-launch pricing special, buyers can visit http://www.theduke.co.za. Two floors of completed apartments will be available for occupation by the end of October this year.
Pictures: Supplied