The town of Caledon, located 110km east of Cape Town, is best known to most South Africans for its warm springs, reputed to be some of the best quality mineral water in the world.  Yet there is more to this tranquil country town than a dip in a hot pool or a fleeting glance while travelling through it on the N2. 

This gracious Cape Dutch home in Caledon is set on close to 900sqm, and offers three en suite bedrooms, a swimming pool, and a large office with its own separate entrance. Pam Golding Properties is marketing the home at R2.5 million. View here.

According to Pam Golding Properties (PGP), its affordable residential property prices, warm hospitality and opportunities for healthy outdoor living make it an ideal country retreat for those who want to escape the rat race.

PGP’s MD for the Boland and Overberg regions, Annien Borg, says residential property in Caledon ranges from around R400 000 for starter apartments to R750 000 for standard cottages, and R1 million to R2.5 million for larger family homes. 

Vacant land is also affordably priced, and one can obtain a large plot of over 1500sqm for under R500 000.

She says this represents excellent value for money, especially when one considers the convenient location, an hour’s drive from Cape Town, and the scenic beauty of a town set in the midst of craggy mountains and rolling wheat-fields. “It is the ideal place for retirees and young families, or those who would prefer to work from home or via a remote office.”

This spacious home in the heritage heart of Caledon occupies spacious grounds of over 3400sqm. The main house offers three bedrooms and four reception rooms, while a large converted barn on the property has previously been used as a restaurant. It is on the market through Pam Golding Properties for R1.5 million. View here.

Caledon has traditionally been a farming community, with many residents either actively engaged in agricultural activities or employed in associated industries, says PGP’s area manager for the eastern Overberg, Le Roux van der Merwe.

Major employers in the town include SAB’s Southern Associated Maltsters, the largest malt-producing plant in the southern hemisphere, as well as Overberg Agri and the Caledon Hotel, Casino and Spa. 

The hotel complex incorporates the famous mineral springs, six of them thermal and one cool, which collectively pump up just under one million litres of water per day. The springs made the town famous and the first variation of a spa for visitors to enjoy their curative benefits was erected as early as the 1710s, says van der Merwe. 

However, he adds that it was only in 1810 that the farming community had grown to sufficient size to establish a proper town with a drostdy (magistrate’s seat) and church. 

“Although the area was originally called ‘Klein Swarte Berg’, the town was named Caledon in honour of the British governor at the time.”

Today, Caledon is home to some 13 000 people and still boasts a number of Victorian-era homes and historic buildings, many of them beautifully restored. 

There is a burgeoning hospitality industry and even some vineyards, while major farming crops include wheat, barley, canola and fruit. Surrounded by the scenic Klein Swartberg mountains, the town has a world-renowned wildflower garden, a lake for fly-fishing and any number of routes for hiking, mountain-biking or simply rambling. 

Families can enrol their children in a choice of pre-primary, primary and high schools, and a local community hospital offers medical care. More extensive private medical and educational facilities are accessible in Hermanus, just 20 minutes’ drive from the town.

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