And the SWC winner is: SA tourism!

Many years ago, when my children were youngsters and my wife was still alive we decided to buy a holiday home in Aston Bay (a little beyond Jeffrey’s Bay on the southern Cape coastline).

It was a lovely little place and looked across a stretch of vacant land that was eventually transformed into Marina Martinque.

We owned the place for a few years and found, sadly, that we used it for a couple of weeks in April – during school holidays – and in a couple of weeks in December, when the weather along that stretch of coast is probably at its worst.

It was, for us, a long haul destination involving a drive of more than a thousand kilometres through the Free State and the Karoo. Sometimes we would break the journey at Graaff-Reinet and spend a night in the lovely Drostdy. Other times we would drive straight through, using the road via Cradock because it seemed to be slightly quicker.

Either way it would take us between 12 and 14 hours depending on the stops we made along the way. And it was for this reason that we tended to use it just twice a year.

Anyway, having enjoyed the Aston Bay holidays – where the beaches are exquisite and the shell graveyards mesmerising – Jacquie and I decided to go to Durban for a long weekend.

It was while we were there that we were offered a splendid opportunity to buy a townhouse (fully furnished) in Zinkwazi. After some mulling and plenty of discussion Jax and I decided to sell Aston Bay and buy the townhouse instead.

There were many good reasons but the most important factor was that it was just six hours drive from Johannesburg (with stops along the way). The net result was that we used to trundle down to Zinkwazi every six weeks or so.

We wouldn’t miss a long weekend and, even for a normal weekend, we could leave when the schools closed on Friday, be in Zink that evening and then leave after a late breakfast on Sunday and be back in Jo’burg in time to watch Carte Blanche that evening.

The kids and I still reckon that it was the best holiday home we ever owned and we used it more often than any of the others too.

Now, the point is that this is exactly what will prevent foreign investors from buying up property in South Africa during FIFA’s Football World Cup. South Africa is a long haul destination and the flights take at least 12 hours from Europe, eight to ten hours from South America, 14 hours (or more) from the US and at least 14 hours from the Far East.

Forget about the higher costs of travel, the reality is that South Africa is not a quick in-and-out destination for holiday makers even though it has some of the finest, most affordable and most wonderful holiday spots for people all over the world.

In Europe, for instance, short flights of – at most – a couple of hours will take you to any destination on the continent. Inexpensive places such as Croatia, Spain and Portugal on the Mediterranean, to the islands of the Seychelles or the whizz and bang of the United Arab Emirates. These are destinations that are close enough for a weekend jaunt. South Africa simply isn’t.

And, it’s a great pity because there is no doubt in my mind that we are a wonderfully hospitable country and, as the thousands of tourists who graced out land have discovered, we are a First World destination in so many different respects.

And, most importantly, when compared with many other destinations around the world the price of our property is laughable.

So I entirely agree with the comments made by John Loos of FNB recently that the influx of foreign tourists would not have any significant impact on property sales in South Africa.

Various estate agents have glibly been suggesting that South Africa is an ideal holiday destination for foreign visitors and the only reason that this is true is because it is a fantastic area for your annual holiday.

But the reality is that as a tourist, why own a house in Cape Town? Why be stuck visiting the same old place year in and year out? Given the size and diversity of the South African landscape such a suggestion is ludicrous.

Visitors to this country want to experience the full diversity – whether it is the game parks of Mpumalanga, the warm, tropical beaches of KwaZulu-Natal, the icy-cold winter nights in the Drakensberg or the wonderful scenic splendours of the southern and Western Cape.

And when the costs of rental accommodation are factored into the holiday package it still represents a bargain break.

What I do hope the World Cup has helped us to achieve, though, is that South Africa is seen for what it really is: a great holiday destination that ranks with anything that is available in any other part of the world.

All those idiot media men and women who were predicting that visitors would be stricken down by poisonous snakes, poisonous gunmen or poisonous thieves have been proven wrong. Many thousands of visitors will attest to the fact that South Africans are wonderfully hospitable and that their visit to this country has been absolutely fantastic.

And, from an investment point of view that’s exactly what we wanted to achieve.

I hope that when the World Cup finally draws to a close and thousands of visitors head back to their homes they will carry with them the real message: that South Africa as a tourist destination is up there with the rest of the world.

And it is this kind of positive message that will stimulate the property market in a meaningful sense because ordinary South Africans will start so see the value of the short-term rental market for overseas visitors who want to come here for several weeks of the year and then spend their long weekends in Spain, Portugal or Croatia.

I certainly cannot buy into the notion among many estate agents that the investment potential in residential housing in South Africa is sufficiently captivating to make foreigners buy holiday homes here.

However, I certainly can see that those people who are fortunate enough to own holiday homes in some of the favourite destinations – from Mabilingwe to Knysna – will start offering these homes to foreigners who are looking for value and who love visiting this country.

And there is nothing to stop homeowners from doing so – particularly in the off-peak periods in South Africa like the European “summer holidays” where families can have a six week break and, during that time, enjoy many of the wonderful sites and experiences that South Africa has to offer.

So my suggestion to the estate agents is to start opening rental operations that truly do market a short-term rental option to the rest of the world. We have the property stock, we have the natural hospitality and we have the kind of climate to attract even the most discerning holidaymakers.

And, by doing this, you would create entirely new markets for yourselves and for all holiday homeowners in this country too.

*Paddy Hartdegen writes a regular column for Property24.com. The content of his columns constitutes his personal opinion and doesn’t pretend to be facts or advice. Contact him at paddy@neomail.co.za.

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