Property prices at the V&A Waterfront have tripled over the last six years.

The average price for an apartment at the V&A Waterfront during 2004 was R4,408,253 – with a threefold increase over the next 6 years by a healthy 20,95% per annum to an average price in 2010 of R13,8m.

So says Emelia van der Linde, Seeff’s V&A Waterfront agent specialising in luxury apartments and penthouses, who adds that 2007 saw a record number of 106 sales to the value of R850,896,946.

“The V&A Marina’s penthouses are available in two slightly different locations – the front yacht basin, with 11 penthouses, and the canal basin with 27, totalling 38 uniquely situated penthouses with superb views of Table Mountain, the Atlantic Ocean and the beautiful surrounds. It is this setting that makes these penthouses so sought after both locally and internationally, and sees them giving excellent investment returns.”

Seeff’s statistics division has measured the compounded average percentage growth rates for the penthouses in the front yacht basin and canal basin over a five-year (2005-2009) and three-year (2007-2009) period. In the front yacht basin the five- and three-year growths in penthouse prices were 36,91% and 29,32% respectively, and in the canal basin 23,89% and 27,62% respectively.

Van der Linde sold the first of the One&Only Cape Town penthouses at the V&A Waterfront in 2008 for a record price of R111m – still the highest price ever paid for a residential property in South Africa. She recently sold the Lawhill apartment block, situated next to the One&Only Cape Town, for the record price paid by one purchaser for R245m. Lawhill comprises two penthouses and 28 individual apartments.

Basil Moraitis, Pam Golding Properties’ (PGP) area manager for Atlantic Seaboard, says there is always demand for penthouses at the V&A Waterfront, “but they aren’t fetching the high asking prices”.

“The last penthouse to sell was in Penrith for R43m. There are plenty on the market ranging from R14,999 at the back to R78m in the front.”

“Based on the Penrith unit there was huge penthouse price growth, but not if it is based on properties on the market. The sellers are not getting their prices.”

Van der Linde says penthouses now on the market on the canal range in price from R16,9m to R39m or R66,015-R97,400/sqm. “Those currently available on the front yacht basin range from R35m to R78m (R85,365-R100,401/sqm). The two remaining penthouses at the One&Only Cape Town are R99,95m and R70m (R69,409-R87,719/sqm).”

Since the start of the V&A Marina in 2000 up to 2009, a total of 55 sales of penthouses were recorded, to the value of R820 972 280, including the R111m One&Only penthouse. There were 36 sales in the front yacht basin to the value of R413,022,280 and 18 on the canal to the value of R296,950,000. – Eugene Brink

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