Hunting Cape Town's house bargains
Cape Town’s house prices make it difficult for middle-income buyers and buy-to-let investors to find a decent abode for less than R3m
Four years ago, 32-year-old software engineer Desmond Riley bought a two-bedroom flat in trendy Beach Road in Cape Town’s Sea Point for R1.7m. He’s just sold it for more than double that at R3.9m. A few kilometres down the road, on the eastern fringes of the City Bowl in Woodstock, graphic designers John and Lesley Whitmore last year bought a renovated semi for R2.775m. That is 85% more than the R1.5m the previous owner paid in 2013. Equally steep price growth has been recorded in swanky upper-end areas, where the well-heeled would typically fork out R10m-plus for a trophy home. On the front yacht basin at the V&A Waterfront, for instance, a two-bedroom apartment in the sought-after Penrith complex that sold for R11.4m (R45,418/m²) in 2011, last year fetched R19m (R87,156/m²) according to Seeff — a not-too-shabby profit of R7.6m within five years. According to property company Lightstone, Cape Town house prices were still rising at an average 13% in the fourth quarter last year, ver...
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