When a property does not sell at an auction, it is often withdrawn from the market. However, in a minority of cases the seller will give the auctioneer the go-ahead to act as a conventional estate agent and to take post-auction offers. These are almost invariably at much reduced prices and bargain hunters can make a killing.
This, says Tanya Jovanovski, Rawson Auctions franchisee for the Western Cape, is exactly the situation that has now arisen at the upmarket Somerset West Fernwood Estate.
Here a 641 m2 plot, one of only five sites not yet sold at Fernwood Estate, failed to attract satisfactory bidders at its initial auction. It is now, therefore, available at the “almost ridiculous” price of R350, 000. This, says Jovanovski, is well below half the previous price paid for some of the plots in this estate.
Jovanovski has already pointed out that homes in Somerset West are now rising in value at 7,8% value year-on-year – a figure givento her by the local Rawson Properties franchisee, Schalk van der Merwe. Stock throughout the area, she says, has now become very scarce.
“A spec builder or one-off developer could,” she says, “easily get between R2 million to R3 million for a home built here in compliance with the estate’s architectural guidelines.”
Fernwood Estate has 180 degree views of False Bay and although imbued with a calm rural atmosphere is, in fact, only eight minutes’ drive from the centre of Somerset West and 25 minutes from Cape Town.
The security arrangements, says Jovanovski, are comprehensive and as good as any she has seen, making the home in every respect ideal for children and retirees.
