Sticking to the Cape tradition

This Cape vernacular-style home is on the market for R6,8m in Uitsig Estate, Constantia, home to some of the country’s most famed wines, writes Michelle Swart

WHEN South African architects design in the increasingly popular Cape vernacular style, there is always a danger that extraneous influences and motifs will somehow creep into the final conception, rendering it inappropriate for use in the Western Cape or anywhere else, says Lanice Steward, MD of Anne Porter Knight Frank.

One project now on sale through Anne Porter Knight Frank which, says Steward, has avoided this pitfall, is in the Uitsig Estate in Constantia.

“If you would like to see how satisfying and elegant a truly simple but impressive Cape vernacular design, with its traditional straight line gables, extensive covered stoeps, oblong chimneys and pitched roof, can be, the home we are now selling in Uitsig Estate is as good an example of what really can be achieved in a Cape vernacular style, ” says Steward.

He says the home benefits from being in a security estate, which “automatically” puts it in the top 15% of all South African homes. “The respected property investor, Coen Coetzee, told those of us at a recent seminar that security estate property is appreciating at a rate 3% higher than conventional property and is selling at an increase per square metre of approximately 35%.

“This in effect means that right now homes in security estates are the only ones in the South African residential property sector where values are almost keeping pace with inflation.”

The home has 400m² of floor area and has four bedrooms, three bathrooms, two living rooms, two garages and a swimming pool which is conveniently enclosed by the Lshape of the building.

Many of the rooms have fulllength glazed doors linking them with the exterior and these and the window frames are in white aluminium/wood. The floors have Terrazo tiles and laminated beech wood strip flooring and the IBR roof, again sticking to the Cape tradition, is charcoal grey.

Steward commented that the relatively stable prices of Constantia, which have, on average, dropped by less than 15%, have confirmed the deep faith that many people have in property in this area. “Lower Constantia, in particular has been a classic case of a less expensive area benefiting from its proximity to a traditionally accepted top residential precinct - in this case Upper Constantia.

“More and more we are seeing a blurring of the boundary line between the two precincts. The distinction between upper and lower Constantia areas is now far less obvious because an entry level home in Lower Constantia cannot now be found for less than R3m and, although this has been said many times already, Constantia has the great attraction of being home to three of SA’S top retail centres and two excellent private schools — The International School and Reddam House.

“These schools have enabled parents to give their children a good private school education, one that will equip them to cope in today’s world, without the parents having to drive Rondebosch or other areas, as was the traditional practice in Constantia prior to the early 1990s.”

Price:

R6,8m

Contact:

Anne Porter Knight Frank Carol Rist 084 654 8584