New Observatory CT apartments

Soon after the launch of the R150 million ‘The Premier’ apartment development to be built on the Main Road in Rondebosch (opposite Westerford High School), Rawson Developers have announced they will be going ahead with a larger follow-up development worth R270 million.

The new building will be on a 2 808 square metre site and will have nine levels and 188 apartments altogether.

This will be known as ‘The Paragon’ and will be situated at 423 Main Road, Observatory, on the corner of Bowden Road. Rawson Developers’ Managing Director, Carl Nortje, says the project introduces a unique new apartment concept which will make it ideally suited to students and investors. ‘The Paragon’ will also introduce new standards in security.

The Paragon sales will start off with "early bird" discounted prices, until a threshold is reached, after which the prices will revert to higher levels.

The new accommodation concept is a "double bedsitter". There will be 124 of these, and they will consist of two large bedrooms, each with its own bathroom and a small kitchen. Each bedroom will also have room for a sofa and a desk.

Nortje says the rental, it is predicted, will by handover stage be a market related R12 000 per month - making this project particularly suitable to investors. Rawson Developers expect 70 percent of their buyers to be buying for renting out purposes; an estimate based on their previous experience in dealing with developments in the UCT catchment area. The rental yields will be further increased due to the fact that the development is situated in the Urban Development Zone, which provides generous tax benefits on the income.

Trevor Weston-Green, Rawson Developers’ Property Development Analyst, says their confidence in the double bedsitter concept stems from the fact that this particular design has proved successful in certain other student orientated developments that have been built on a smaller scale. He says in addition, they have commissioned a study to analyse students’ requirements and desires. This research is, in fact, ongoing with more students being interviewed each week, he says.

The new building will be on a 2 808 square metre site and will have nine levels and 188 apartments altogether. The ground floor level will be given over to parking for 235 vehicles in all. This means that it complies with the City Council’s requirement that each unit must have one parking bay and a further 0.25 parking bays to accommodate visitors’ cars.

The building will be in an L-shape, and every unit will have a full balcony or a Juliet balcony, many of which will have panoramic views of Devils Peak.

Along with the 124 double bedsitter units, the building will also have studio flats of 27 to 32 square metres of floor area, one bedroom 43 square metre units, and two bedroom, two bathroom units.

The prices will reflect the fact that the project comes on stream in November/December 2016, and will initially be pitched from R800 000 to R1.95 million.

Nortje says all the apartments will be fitted out to a high standard and will, for example, have granite countertops in all the kitchens. Recognising that the majority of occupants will be students, Rawson Developers have included a communal TV lounge, an open air rooftop braai and swimming pool area, as well as a fully equipped gymnasium. The building will also have integrated Wi-Fi throughout.

The ever-growing demand for good security, he says, will be met by encircling the site with electrified fencing and by monitoring all areas with CCTV. In addition, gate and other guards will be on duty round-the-clock and access will be by means of biometric fingerprint recognition.

Nortje says Observatory has, for many years, had a reputation for being the ideal student precinct, and is therefore particularly well-suited to a development of this kind. ‘The Paragon’ will be only 600 metres from the Observatory railway station, 220 metres from the UCT Medical School, across the road from the Groote Schuur Hospital and two kilometres from the UCT campuses. In addition, it will also be close to the Hartleyvale Soccer Stadium and its nearby astroturf hockey pitch, the River Club Golf Course and Driving Range and the South African Observatory. The evening entertainment scene in Observatory is also particularly well-suited to students.

For more information, email or contact Rawson Developers on 021 658 7100.