This five-bedroom, four-bathroom home in Silver Lakes Golf Estate is for sale through RealNet for R7,5m. It also has four living areas, a study, a kitchen with scullery and pantry, staff accommodation, three garages and a pool.
Prices for high-end homes in the Silver Lakes Golf Estate to the east of Pretoria have climbed steeply in recent months in response to a growing shortage of stock, says Anne-Marie Scholtz, owner of top local agency RealNet Elegance.
“The average price of recent sales in Silver Lakes has been around R4m,” she says, “and although it is definitely the premier estate in the area, we are now experiencing more robust sales in the surrounding estates like The Meadows and Six Fountains, where buyers currently have a greater choice of homes for sale and the average price is only around R2,7m”.
“Developers are also active in the area again and we are also marketing new projects such as Newmark Estate, where four-bedroom homes with three bathrooms, two lounges and staff accommodation are available for R2,85m, all costs included.”
Scholtz says the Willow Acres and Six Fountains estates are also popular choices because they offer easy access to the N4 freeway, Lynnwood Road and excellent shopping facilities
“Then in Hazeldean, we are seeing strong demand from executives and professionals with school-going children in The Meadows, which offers homes in the popular R2m to R3m category and proximity to the Curro Hazeldean independent schools”.
“In fact, these schools as well as other private institutions like Tyger Valley College and Abbotts College are major draw cards to this whole area.”
There is also a popular retirement development in Hazeldean called The Retreat, which has a privately-owned frailcare facility, and another upmarket estate named The Ridge, which is a low-density development offering vacant land as well as completed homes, she says.
Silver Lakes and the surrounding estates also attract many buy-to-let investors, who mostly let to corporates seeking to accommodate foreign executives working in SA on three to five-year contracts.
The demand among such buyers is generally for homes priced at under R3,5m, Scholtz says, and the gross return they can expect is around 8%. “After levies and rates, this translates into a return of 6% on the investment, which is very good, considering the price of the property.
“And our investors are primarily cash buyers or people with excellent credit records, which means we hardly ever lose such sales due to bonds not being approved.”
