The ‘huge’ potential of the Fish Hoek, Glencairn, Noordhoek and Kommetjie property market has led to the Rawson Property Group introducing a new franchise in the area. This franchise (owned by Steven Mann) will operate alongside Fish Hoek’s former franchisees, Leon Bosman and Cathy Baker, who will continue to own and run the Simon’s Town franchise where they are now based.
Under the new deal the new franchisee and his sister Kim (who will continue working as a rental agent in Fish Hoek), will be allowed to trade in Bosman and Baker’s areas and will on occasions share mandates.
Kim Mann, who has had several years’ experience with the Fish Hoek franchise, will continue to run the Fish Hoek rental operation which manages some 40 properties and signs leases on an additional dozen each month.
“An arrangement of this kind,” said Kim Mann recently, “would not have made much sense two or three years ago. However with a revival now clearly taking place in the market (prices are rising 3% to 4% per annum), this is a good time to put the new deal into action.”
The bigger Rawson Property Group footprint, predicted Mann, will lead to a 50% upturn in Fish Hoek sales and a big upturn in the rentals, which the Fish Hoek franchise will be handling for the entire area, including Simon’s Town.
“The public have to realise,” said Mann, “that a transformation is taking place and we are now seeing a change in the whole face and image of Fish Hoek. Previously it was viewed as a rather quiet suburb, best suited to retired people and surfers. Now it is attractive to many younger couples with families.”
Such couples, she said, are drawn to Fish Hoek by the relatively low prices still prevailing there and by their appreciation potential, which, said Mann, over the next five years will exceed 35% in total.
“At the moment,” she said, “R1 million to R1,5 million will buy a well built and well-designed three or four bedroom home. This is approximately half what would be paid for a similar home in the central Cape Peninsula suburbs.”
If the young couple has children, said Mann, they will probably also be attracted by the very satisfactory academic standards achieved by the Fish Hoek schools and possibly by the presence of the False Bay Technical College, which has an excellent reputation countrywide. Then, too, she said, buyers are increasingly attracted by the low crime figures.
“People,” said Mann, “almost always feel safer in Fish Hoek than they do in any other Cape Peninsula suburb.”
Asked to give evidence of the increased demand in the territory, Cathy Baker said that six months ago it was common to find potential buyers offering 10 to 15% below the asking price. Today, she said, the bids are often close to 5%. A home priced at R1,150,000 was recently sold in one day and similar fast deals are now imminent.
On the rentals front, said Mann, demand outstrips supply, with the result that rentals are rising at about 10% per annum. Freestanding two bedroom homes can be rented at anything from R6,000 to R7,000 per month and three bedroom homes from R8,000 to R12,000 per month. Two bedroom apartments can be rented at R4,000 to R5,000 per month and three bedroom apartments at anything up to R10,000 per month.
Mann stressed that homes on the mountainside and in central Fish Hoek, Kommetjie, Scarborough and other surrounding areas vary greatly in price (at Noordhoek, for example, they can cost anything from R2 million to R10 million) but, she said, all offer excellent value by Cape Peninsula standards because, although now rising steadily in value, prices are still significantly below those prevailing in suburbs nearer to Cape Town.
