Cape Town - On Tuesday evening, minutes before the cottages and flats of 30 labourers on the boundary of a luxury golf estate were to go on auction, Stuart Chait, a Cape Town property developer, put in an offer of R50 million, far in excess of the seller's expectation.
The property is within metres of vineyards, the Steenberg Village shopping centre, the exclusive Reddam School and the American Embassy. It has sweeping views of the southern suburbs with the mountains behind.
Alon Kowen, the managing director of Auction Alliance, said the auction, where other residential property was also available, was about to start when Chait's offer was made just before 6pm.
The other registered bidders were given an opportunity to consider that offer, but none could match R50 million, he said.
The cottages, situated on the boundary of the luxury Steenberg golf estate, used to be occupied by labourers at the original Steenberg farm. The property's most recent owner was an overseas consortium that declined to be identified.
Kowen said the cottages, which were not occupied, would be redeveloped on the same footprint and would be similar in size.
The Steenberg golf estate was built by a JCI-owned property development company in the mid-1990s. It is separated from the notorious Pollsmoor Prison by the width of Steenberg Road. A residential plot then cost R345 000, yet the most recent sale of a house on the estate was for R16.5 million.
Another neighbouring enclosed estate that caught the public imagination was Stonehurst, owned by businessman and presidential hopeful Tokyo Sexwale, where prospective buyers stood in line for days to buy a plot.
About 300 houses are planned for Stonehurst, on 180 stands and 120 high-density blocks. The cheapest stand on the estate sold for R475 000 three years ago; free-standing houses now sell for R4.5 million, high-density houses for up to R3 million and a good quality vacant plot for between R1.5 million and R3 million.
"With the increase in crime in the southern suburbs, many Constantia residents moved into gated communities because they were prepared to sacrifice two acres of rolling lawn for the security" of access control, Kowen said.
Russel Smith of Land Equity, a land financing firm, said the Steenberg cottages would be redeveloped with a property developer. Under the rezoning and sub-division rights granted by the City of Cape Town, six of the units had to be reserved for low-income earners.
"This is something we're happy with and we commend the city council for including reconstruction and development programme objectives in a private development," he said.