Best practice management of South Africa’s R800-billion secure gated residential sector will be the focus of estate managers from all over the country when they converge on Johannesburg at the end of May for a first-ever national management conference.
“It is a critically important event at which we will be deliberating all issues relating to the management of Home Owners Associations (HOAs), of which there are 3 000 in South Africa,” says Jeff Gilmour, President of the Association of Residential Communities (ARC).
“The skills and knowledge building platform provided by the conference will assist estate managers and HOAs to operate at the highest levels of international best practice in the residential communities they manage,” he adds.
The ARC-organised event will be opened by Dawn Bauman, the senior Vice President of the 32 000-member Community Association Institute (CAI) in the USA – where 60-million people live in association-managed communities, says Gilmour.
He recently attended the 2013 CAI Annual Conference in San Diego, USA, where Johan Kruger, a founder member of ARC and Chairperson of the newly formed SA chapter of the CAI USA, delivered a ‘state of the nation’ presentation on the SA gated estate landscape.
The objective of ARC, which is the only CAI chapter outside of the United States, is to assist HOAs to manage residential estates more efficiently and, in the process, to protect and grow the value of residents’ homes, says Gilmour.
The conference will take place from 29 to 31 May at the Eagle Canyon Golf Estate in the north-west of the greater Johannesburg area. The estate is an ARC founder member.
Highly desirable lifestyle
Secure gated estate living has mushroomed in South Africa in the 2000s, and is today one of the most highly desirable residential lifestyles.
This is illustrated by an ARC survey which shows that HOAs in SA gated estates have assets of R800-billion under their management – close to 27 per cent of the R3-trillion* total market value of residential property in the country.
Furthermore, gated estates house 10 per cent of South Africa’s population; pay R4,7-billion in annual rates; and collect levies of R8-billion a year.**
Sources:
* Property Sector Charter Council (PSCC)
** ARC national survey
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