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LATEST PROPERTY MARKET
NEWS
Camps Bay, Cape Town - Property in demand
March 12 2009
With all the magnificent homes around in Camps Bay today,
Property Investment doubles every five years and is continuing
to do so.
Camps Bay Entry-level is around R5-million.
Affectionately known as The Strip, the Camps Bay beachfront
has it all – perfect palms, a crescent of white sand where
bronzed beach-goers glisten in the sun while sipping cocktails
behind Gucci shades, and a beautiful, yacht-filled, turquoise
bay.
This golden view fronts a suburb that is the envy of beach destinations
worldwide. To visitors, Camps Bay is a dazzling, self-contained
holiday resort where you can shop at exclusive boutiques, dine
at a vast selection of restaurants, party in glamorous style,
tan, paraglide, enjoy matchless mountain walks and view cutting-edge
architecture – all under the breathtaking gaze of Cape Town’s
towering sphinx and against the backdrop of the exquisite Twelve
Apostles mountains.
But Camps Bay wasn’t always a playground for local
and international glitterati; this is just one of its alluring
personalities, and its newest. From the 1940s to the ’60s,
it was literally a one-horse town. A white mare named Philly was
the village pet. She roamed the streets freely, and in 1957 was
made an official freeman of Camps Bay. Philly belonged
to Roy de Beer (known by locals as Bak-Beentjies), a well-remembered
Camps Bay character who worked from two huge sheds that
stood almost exactly where the parking lot behind Pick n Pay is
today. His land was essentially a car graveyard.
A resident who grew up in Camps Bay recalls: ‘Bak-Beentjies
had a scrapyard full of cars that he kept meaning to work on,
plus every other broken object one could possibly imagine, and
living in amongst this metal playground were his 40 or 50 cats
and dogs.
They seemed to spend all day sleeping under the cars and in old
doll prams, enjoying the full attention of their owner. Philly,
on the other hand, would wander around, eating people’s flowers
and getting fed delicious treats by housewives, who adored her.’
The one-horse town later became a one-horse, one-donkey town when
Roy adopted scruffy Nellie. Local children would ride on his back
until he’d tire of them; then he’d simply walk under
a low branch and knock them off. These hoofed residents are still
making Camps Bay’s children smile and watching their village
grow – they grin from a huge mural in the entrance hall of
Camps Bay High School, as a constant loving reminder of the suburb’s
earlier days.
In the early 1800s, when Camps Bay was a backwater suburb
that few Capetonians even knew how to get to, lion, leopard and
antelope roamed free on the verdant slopes beneath Lion’s
Head.
Lord Charles Somerset used The Round House (a small building at
the foot of Lion’s Head that was originally a guardhouse
and later a farmhouse) as his hunting lodge. His tastes were extravagant
and he had it fitted with the finest luxuries of the time. Since
then, The Round House has been used for various hospitality endeavours.
Today the building has been beautifully restored and houses the
exquisite Roundhouse Restaurant.
Nightlife and entertainment in Camps Bay began in the Rotunda,
which now forms part of the five-star Bay Hotel. The landmark
green-roofed, round building was built in 1904 and was used for
roller-skating, dancing, silent-movie viewings and, sometimes,
even boxing matches. Today, people find their fun a few metres
closer to the sea. On the south side of The Strip is Cape Town’s
beautiful Theatre on the Bay, where an excellent variety of local
and international productions are staged.
Restaurants and bars are dotted all along the beachfront and spill
onto the pavement, creating a real café-culture, cocktails-in-the-sun
feel.
Owners don’t have it as easy as it may appear, though.
Edmonton block, the restaurant block opposite the famous Café
Caprice, recently sold on auction for R44-million, and it’s
just over 400m2 – a whopping R110 000 a square metre. This
exceedingly high value makes it difficult for any commercial venture
to be profitable, and restaurants in Camps Bay have a tendency
to frequently change hands. Those notable for their staying power
include The Bayside Café, The Sandbar, Café Caprice
and Blues.
The up side of the situation: there are always new little gems
to be discovered. The most recent summer additions are Bungalow
and The Kove, which have brought a crisp sense of style to the
previously drab ‘petrol-station side’ of Main Road.
The name ‘Camps Bay’ has been around since the
1700s, when Dutch sailor Fredrik Ernst von Kamptz envisaged a
relaxing life for himself on a farm where he could look out over
the vast ocean rather than scrub the decks of his ship Holland.
Von Kamptz found a lonely widow, Anna Koekemoer, who owned a piece
of land with an idyllic view. He married her and became the owner
of Ravensteyn, the first farm in the area. Despite only living
there for 10 years, he managed to make his mark, with the area
becoming known as ‘de Baai van Von Kamptz’.
Perceptions change all the time: Cohen’s Folly was the name
given to Isidore Cohen’s swift purchase of a large portion
of Camps Bay in the 1920s, when it was known as a bushy
waste battered by the southeast and northwest winds. He was one
of the very few who saw any potential in the area.
Investment folly? Hardly so. The last few decades tell
a very different story.
‘I’ve been working in the area for 15 years and have
witnessed its meteoric rise from a sleepy suburb to one of Cape
Town’s most desirable areas,’ says Barbara Rogers of
Pam Golding Properties. ‘It has proved to be a very
good investment area. Even in difficult times, Camps Bay has held
property values far better than other areas.’
Careen Bernstein of Dogon Group Properties agrees: ‘I’ve
spent most of my adult life selling property in Camps Bay; it
has certainly been a good investment area for many people. Three
years ago we sold a bungalow on Glen Beach for R21-million and
it didn’t even have a garage or off-street parking! More
recently we sold a property on a very large erf for R20-million.
The purchaser knocked down the house that was there and is now
building a mansion of note.’
The numbers rise. A two-storey house recently sold for over R30-million,
and this on the previously lower-valued, south side of Camps
Bay, closest to Hout Bay. ‘Traditionally, The Glen –
at the foot of Lion’s Head, on the north side of Camps
Bay – was the most sought-after area because it’s
more protected from the wind,’ says a property developer
in Camps Bay. ‘But in recent years, high prices have
been achieved anywhere in the area. People are far more interested
in the house and the quality of the views than the location. Anywhere
in Camps Bay is prime.’
Ian Slot, managing director of Seeff Properties, says, ‘Years
ago, houses in the Rontree area above Camps Bay Drive as well
as the area below it were less sought-after. However, with all
the magnificent homes around today, there seems to be little differentiation
between areas. Investment doubles every five years and is continuing
to do so. Entry-level is around R5-million.’
Architecture has embraced the fact that a house and its views
are the factors that fetch high prices. Camps Bay is the
ideal canvas for architectural firms, like Stefan Antoni Olmesdahl
Truen Architects, Greg Wright Architects, Archilab
Architects and Arthur Quinton Darryl Croome Architects;
they can capture the natural splendour, reflect it in their designs
and ‘bring the outdoors in’.
One building whose design contrasts with the architectural styles
emerging in the area is Sonnekus, the only high-rise building
on the beachfront. It was completed in the early 1970s, when new
developments were hardly questioned. Once it was up, residents
panicked as they realised that the beachfront was legally zoned
for towering blocks of flats. The potential for a concrete uprising
on the beachfront was quickly squashed when Section 98 of the
Zoning Scheme Regulations was introduced; it prescribed that future
buildings in Camps Bay were to be restricted to 10 metres
in height and could only comprise three storeys.
‘To this day, nobody can tell you with any certainty what
this actually means,’ sighs Camps Bay resident Chris Willemse,
the head of planning for Camps Bay Ratepayers and Residents
Association (CBRRA). ‘We’ve fought many court cases
and are willing to keep doing so to keep Camps Bay looking
like a residential area. The city’s development approval
process is abysmal, mostly favouring unacceptable and often illegal
development, but we’re working hard to keep a village feel.
The CBRRA is not anti-development, but we’re not prepared
to allow our very special suburb to be destroyed for anybody’s
short-term gain. The three words we keep in mind when development
decisions arise are: “sensitive, sensible, sustainable”.’
Brenda Herbert of Herbert Properties has worked as an estate agent
in Camps Bay for 33 years. She has lived in the area for
45 years and is an executive member of the CBRRA. She says, ‘Many
developments have been legally “trimmed” to comply with
the regulations and to avoid dropping the values of neighbouring
properties. Development must obviously happen, but it has to blend
in with, not mar, the beauty of the surroundings.’
For those looking to move to the area, the community feel is a
draw card, as is the community’s efforts to reduce crime.
Bernard Shäfer started Camps Bay Watch in February 2008 as
an anti-crime initiative under the auspices of the Camps Bay Community
Policing Forum. ‘We’ve had a tremendous impact on crime,’
he says, ‘but as a public organisation we intend to continue
changing the way residents co-exist and interact in order to restore
a cleaner, safer and better functioning suburb for all.’
Does he think Camps Bay is a safe place to live? ‘Yes, definitely;
compared with other areas we are relatively safe.’
Some residents are keen for Camps Bay to become a City Improvement
District (CID), Bernard says. ‘We’ve had an introductory
meeting to educate residents on what a CID entails, but no decision
or direction has been taken yet.’
‘Becoming a CID would be very positive and is probably inevitable,’
comments Chris Willemse.
If you require impartial advice on acquiring a prime property,
please contact one of our Directors:
Telephone
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Email
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inbox@sandshomesearch.com
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www.sandshomesearch.com
Office
Address
UK
Head Office
Sands Home Search, 12 Winston Road, Churchdown, Gloucester. GL3
2QZ
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Sands Home Search, Leopard Rock, 47 Price Drive, Constantia, Cape
Town. 7806
Thank you for your interest in our company.
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