The Boland town of Wellington, which has around 60,000 inhabitants altogether, is gaining popularity with buyers, not only from other Boland towns but also from Cape Town and Gauteng. As a result, middle bracket housing (priced from R1 million to R1,3 million) is seeing price increases of close to 10% per annum, stock here is becoming short in supply and new developments are doing well.
This summary of the property situation in Wellington was given recently by Tertius Joubert, the Rawson Property Group’s franchisee who at the start of last year predicted that this is exactly what would happen.
“You do not have to be a particularly well informed property analyst to understand why this is happening,” said Joubert. “Wellington is quiet and beautiful with a wonderful warm climate in summer and bracing winters. It has a relatively low crime and is only 65 km from the centre of Cape Town. It is also close to Bellville, Paarl, Stellenbosch and the airport. The crucial point in its favour, however, is that the value we estate agents operating here can offer is exceptional by any standards. People are on average paying about 30 to 40% less than what they would pay for similar homes in the more popular areas of Cape Town – and these homes are often large, well-built and on plots of up to 1,000 m2 in size.”
Giving evidence to back this statement, Joubert mentioned three homes, all with three or four bedrooms, which he and his team have sold recently. They were priced at R1,190,000, R1,270,000 and R1,900,000 respectively. All of these homes, said Joubert, will probably have cost well over R3 million had they been sited in the Cape Town suburbs of Rondebosch, Rosebank or Claremont.
“It will come as no surprise to property trend-watchers to learn that retirees are beginning to waken to the reality that they can downscale to Wellington without in any way reducing the size of their homes and can acquire a small financial nest egg in the process.”
Two new Wellington developments, both in attractive Cape cottage styles (with black pitched roofs and white or off-white plastered walls), are, said Joubert, likely to sell very fast. The first is at Bainsvallei, where the Rawson Property Group has just sold three units in the first fortnight of the re-launch. The prices here are pitched from R870,000 to R1,015,000. All 40 plots, Joubert predicted, will be sold by the end of this year.
At the even newer La Madeleine security village there will be only 16 units, all with two or three bedrooms. The prices here are pitched from R1,250,000 to R1,650,000 and the standard of finishes, said Joubert, is exceptionally high.
Both these developments, he said, have the big advantage of being in security villages where, in return for small monthly levies, a high safety level is assured and the grounds are well maintained and remain in good condition.
Those wishing to buy in Wellington at the lower end of the middle class bracket, said Joubert, can still find apartments priced from as low as R400,000 for a single bedroom unit and R500,000 for a two bedroom unit. Here, too, however, he said, prices continue to rise because there is a steady demand from the students at the agricultural and teacher training colleges, both of which are said to be among the best in South Africa today.
At the upper end of the middle class home bracket, Wellington can offer gracious Victorian and Edwardian as well as ultra-modern homes and the Rawson Wellington team say that they have sold five such homes late last year priced from R1,5 million to R3 million.
“Demand for upper bracket homes is much softer than for those in the middle bracket, but again the long term appreciation prospects are, I believe, excellent and in every case we are offering quite exceptional value for money.”
