South Africa, and particularly Cape Town, is attracting foreign property investors who are chasing the sun and bowled over by the exchange rate and what they can get for their Euros. And most of the properties they are buying are off-the-grid

Europeans, armed with a good exchange rate, are helping the Atlantic Seaboard property market make a comeback as a favoured destination for investors.

Proving that people are willing to pay what it takes for the lifestyle offered by this area, Obsidian, a completely off-the-grid home in Clifton, has just been sold.

It was designed by leading South African architecture firm, SAOTA as a granite and glass-designed masterpiece and was on the market for R160 million.

Karryn Cartoulis of Re/Max Living, who marketed the property, says the market is “so busy currently, over all sectors”.

A SAOTA-designed home was recently sold for R160 million.

Data from PropStats, the online sales database designed for estate agents, shows that in 2021 the average time a house spent on the market in 2021 was 171 days. This has dropped to 71 days in 2022 for homes across all price bands.

The Clifton house had been on the market over the hard lockdowns of 2020 and 2021, and its sale now - by the family who almost immediately fell in love with it and put in an offer - is a “clear indication that the world and the market is opening up”.

Ms Cartoulis says the quality of life plus the exchange rate is what is drawing her foreign clients.

“Added to that many of my foreign clients purchase the high-end villas as they are astounded by the short-term rental yields which are achieved from December to May. Most of these high-end villas are holiday homes,” she says.

Ms Cartoulis, who also is marketing another SAOTA-inspired R230m home in the area, says the R160m house was sold to a family from Europe.

They loved the five-levelled, luxury villa, set high up in Clifton on the slopes of Lion’s Head, which was designed to blend in with the mountain and maximise the magnificent views of the 12 Apostles mountain range, Lion’s Head and the Atlantic Ocean.

With all this natural beauty on one’s doorstep it is easy to see why certain parts of Cape Town are expected to show the highest growth in property prices against the other provinces.

Ms Cartoulis says many of her foreign purchasers were young entrepreneurs from Europe “who love chasing the sun”.

“They stay for at least three months at their villas and invite many of their friends to join them,” she says.

“With the easy time zone, they can all work remotely and enjoy an incredible quality of life with our world-class beaches, mountain ranges, incredible restaurants, shops, friendly and hospitable South Africans with the most fantastic culture that we have to offer them.”

That the properties are off-the-grid also helps when it comes to issues such as load shedding.

The interior of Obsidian generates a sense of serenity from the moment you walk through the front door, says Ms Cartoulis.

The lower part of the building, an independent apartment, is expressed as “a heavy stone plinth, its gabion-walled exterior and cocooning interior of dark-stained oak and off shutter concrete reflecting the strata of the mountainside out of which they emerge”.

On top of this is a transitional space with a green terrace and braai area.

All levels of the house are connected via a sculptural timber staircase, “like a folded ribbon that, appropriate to the home’s design narrative, gradually lightens in tone as it rises”.

A vertically slatted box “hovers over the terrace, with screens that can be opened or closed to adjust the amount of natural light filtering into the interior, as if you were sitting in the shade of a large tree”.

The uppermost level, the master bedroom, sits above the tree-tops and as such the materials – white marble, pale timber – and use of skylights “express a feeling of air and openness while fold-away glass walls welcome in the full expanse of the view”.

The house was furnished and designed by a renowned interior decorator, Cécile and Boyd.

Ms Cartoulis added that some of the art, furniture and sculptures were included in the purchase.

But it is not only foreign investors that have their eyes on the Seaboard. Banking and property experts say the “semigration” trend, which has seen skilled and higher income households move most notably in the direction of the Western Cape are driving Cape Town property sales, especially along the coast.

Seeff Property Group agent Ross Levin said the Atlantic Seaboard and City Bowl luxury property markets which had performed well in 2021 had done even better this year due to semigration.

He said sales for the first seven months of 2022 were over R5 billion and for the first time in years, estate agents were seeing property stock in short supply, even in high-end areas such as Fresnaye, Bantry Bay and Camps Bay.

Estate agents are saying Camps Bay properties are in short supply due to semigration.

“To put this into perspective, the entire 2021-year only yielded sales of just over R6.6 billion. Additionally, trophy homes sales above R20 million are also well ahead of last year and already stands at over R1.64 billion which exceeds the whole of 2021.”

Property sector strategist at FNB, John Loos, said the semigration trend had led to the expectation that the Western Cape economy would at some point begin to outperform the rest of the country.

He said this was because South Africa’s modern services dominated economy was heavily dependent on skilled labour, and the Western Cape was best at attracting and retaining such people. - Cape Argus

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Property buyers chase seaboard sun