13 MAART
MARKET ‘UNFREEZES’ AFTER FIVE YEARS
Summer Club heralds sunrise for developments All 114 units in the first phase were sold out within six weeks – sure confirmation, according to the development consortium, that the Summer Club lifestyle estate in Somerset West has entered the market with the right package at the right time.
“No other development of this size has been launched in the past eight years, and there is no more land of this magnitude left in this area,” says Dave Harris, a property development and marketing veteran who is overseeing the sales and marketing of the Summer Club. The Summer Club is situated on a 42 hectare site accessed via a link road off Sir Lowry’s Pass Road. Big plans are being rolled out on this, the last of the large land holdings in the area running along the Sir Lowry’s Pass Road. Development will take place over 19 phases and across a broad spectrum of uses to meet the vision of a multi-faceted lifestyle estate. A total of 1 115 residential units will be built, with the second phase to be launched in April. Two school sites are included – one of which has already been snapped up by Curro Holdings, the successful education division of the PSG Group, for a Curro Castle pre-primary school. Two dams on the estate will provide six hectares of pristine water for fishing, swimming, sailing and rowing. A clubhouse and gymnasium will be built on the water’s edge and will include a rim-flow swimming pool. A mature forest area will form part of 15 hectares of open space offering mountainbiking and jogging
trails. All of this will be enclosed within state-of-the-art security featuring biometric access control, electrical fencing set into anti-dig foundations, and monitored surveillance cameras. Twenty-four hectares of commercial and retail land will form a buffer between the residential estate and the N2. This land includes an option
for a 6 000m² shopping centre. The consortium behind this development is made up of Investec, Omnicron and Wiehahn Properties, a national property investment and development company that locally developed Schonenberg Estate in Somerset West. The sell-out success achieved within six weeks on the first phase of the
development returned proof-positive confirmation to the developers that the market is again ready to take up new property developments. Dave Harris, who has been in the property development and marketing field for 32 years, says that no new developments have been launched in the past five years in the Somerset West area. A major constraint on ac-
From the left are Dave Harris, a 32year veteran of the property development and marketing industry who is overseeing sales and marketing at the Summer Club; Zane de Decker, representing Wiehahn Properties, a con sortium partner; and Jan Bergman, representing Investec, also a consortium partner in the development.
tivity came from the sudden implementation of the National Credit Act, which banks responded to by curtailing 100% bonds and limiting the flow of finance to developments. General economic constraints kept the average household under pressure. But pent-up investment and purchaser demand for property, together with banks easing up on their previously stifling lending criteria, have opened the door for money to return into property development and investment. And the Summer Club’s release onto the market is timed just right. “Substantial funds” have already been set into the ground at the Summer Club to prepare it for development. Jan Bergman, representing consortium partner Investec, says that in his many years in the development world, he has never spent as much money prior to a development as was spent at the Summer Club. Infrastructure already paid for includes a link road to the development off Sir Lowry’s Pass Road; completed entrance buildings and security elements; 50% of the estate’s general infrastructure, and extensive landscaping fed by an on-site nursery. Zane de Decker points out that this investment is a sure sign of the development consortium’s confidence in the development. Phase II, to be released in April, will make 94 units of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments available for purchase. Construction has commenced on Phase I’s units and occupation is set for the end of November. . Go to www.thesummerclub.co.za or phone 021 202 2200 for further details on the Summer Club.