It is, says Tony van der Lith, Rawson Properties’ franchisee for Newlands, Cape Town, a common experience in the residential property sector to find that no sooner has one agency chief decided it is time to publicize (again) the virtues of a certain area, other agencies will have the same idea.
“Certainly this year,” said van der Lith, “Newlands, quite justifiably, has been highly commended by many agencies – and this is right because it has reached a peak of popularity, especially among Cape Town’s most ambitious, most effective upwardly mobile young professionals and managers.”
This, he said, has ensured ongoing price increases which are now, by his calculations, ahead of the official inflation rate –it is today almost impossible to buy a home in Newlands under R3 million, while prices of R5 million to R9 million are commonly asked and achieved.
The reasons for Newlands’ sought-after status, said van der Lith, are only too obvious and again have been widely publicized. Perhaps the chief of these, in van der Lith’s view, are (1) its highly convenient central position in relation to the CBD and other key work areas, (2) its proximity to good schools such as SACS, Westerford, Sans Souci, Herschel and Grove, which consistently achieve good academic and sporting results and (3) its ability to foster and maintain retail outlets and excellent restaurants such as Barristers, Foresters’ Arms, Myoga at the Vineyard Hotel and others.
In addition to these factors, said van der Lith, the area has for many a powerful appeal based on the fact that it has relatively few imposing (“often rather tasteless and pretentious’) “grande maisons”. Instead, in their place are dozens of refurbished and modernized (or any many cases totally rebuilt) homes on relatively small compact plots in which every plant and shrub appears to be carefully chosen and nurtured. These homes invariably reflect the input of one of Cape Town’s better architects today – and time and again have, in fact, been featured in design and décor magazines.
Rawson Properties, being new to the precinct, has, said their top agent, Nikki Lloyd-Roberts, had to work hard to win market share, but the good news is that enquiries in May were significantly higher than ever before and higher than any of the staff had anticipated.
“It does appear that for many people, Newlands is the only satisfactory suburb,” says Lloyd-Roberts, “and they are very disappointed if they have to live anywhere else. Sadly, however, at least 30% of our enquirers have not appreciated how prices have risen here in the last few years and therefore are forced to seek elsewhere.”
Particularly satisfying to herself, said Lloyd-Roberts, have been sole mandates she secured for two houses, (and another already sold), which she negotiated recently. These are close to the Protea Road circle. One is priced at R4, 8 million and the other at R5, 9 million. They have six or seven bedrooms each, a studio/TV area, spacious living and dining rooms, swimming pools and well-established gardens. Both homes could be suitable for dual living or even possibly as guesthouses. Both, too, are within walking distance of Cavendish Square, the Vineyard Hotel and even the Newlands cricket and rugby grounds. In addition, although traditional older-type Newlands homes, they have been tastefully and effectively upgraded, the kitchens and bathrooms in particular being ultra-modern.
Van der Lith said that in view of the ongoing price rises in Newlands, potential buyers should be doing all they can to ‘get in now’.
“This, of course, is what every agent is saying in virtually every district,” he said. “However it is almost certain that house prices in this always popular area will continue to escalate steadily from here on.”
