Louis Schoeman, the Rawson Property Group’s franchisee for Durbanville has established a licenced commercial franchise.
Making a preliminary statement on this subject, Schoeman said that these days Durbanville is almost encircled by well-maintained farms and smallholdings on which wine and grain growing, cattle and sheep farming, as well as horse breeding are the usual activities.
Such properties, says Schoeman, can be priced when put up for sale at anything from R2,5 million to R70 million. Potential buyers from all over South Africa, he says, have in the last year been making enquiries about such properties, many having had a long held ambition to come to the Cape to run a small estate of the kind described. Live-wire estate agents, says Schoeman, could now be selling four to six of such properties per annum and that is the target he has set for his new team. This team is made up of new recruits, Pieter Tolmay and David Hodge. Tolmay was a farmer for many years and understands fully the economics of such an operation while Hodge acquired extensive commercial property experience at Absa.
Schoeman says that in commercial (as opposed to agricultural) properties there are also good opportunities not only in Durbanville but throughout the surrounding area and his franchise is not limited to any one particular area — they have carte blanche to operate as far afield as they please. He is therefore looking to sell ten purely commercial properties within the next year.
“In view of potential for the commercial side,” says Schoeman, “we expect this aspect of our business to grow very fast and we are making new contracts every week. It is encouraging to see just how much respect the Rawson brand carries in this field.”
