Chief shells out R78m for sky-high luxury
A MYSTERIOUS Nigerian chief is making waves in Cape Town after splashing out a cool R78.6-million for two luxury penthouses.
The adjoining units in the Amalfi luxury apartment block in Mouille Point on the Atlantic Seaboard are being converted into one spectacular pad.
This is not a record sale for the Atlantic Seaboard but, at more than R160 000/m², it is unprecedented in Mouille Point and probably among the highest prices for an apartment in South Africa, measured in R/m² terms.
According to online sales database Propstats, 199 properties on the exclusive seaboard were sold for a total of R1.5- BY THE SEA: An artist’s impression of the Amalfi luxury apartment block in Mouille Point billion this summer. Last season’s sales amounted to R958million. Foreigners scooped 34 units in the area for a total of R402-million.
Natacha Neuburger, the agent from Dogon Group Properties who sold the two penthouses, said the chief had been looking for “something new and modern with 360° views”.
“The two apartments will be consolidated, resulting in the perfect ultra-luxury penthouse with glorious mountain and ocean views.”
Neuburger said work had begun on the property and interior designers had been hired for the buyer, whose name she declined to reveal.
“He is a very astute, clever and well-respected man. He runs huge businesses around the world and is on the board of big companies,” she said.
Neuburger and two other agents — Lucia Poulter and Finella Botes — sell in Mouille Point and the V&A Waterfront. In the past six months they have sold penthouses and apartments to the value of R280-million.
Many of their buyers are middle-aged men and women from around the world, although recent clients have included locals, who are giving up their big homes in South Africa’s top suburbs.
Ian Slot, Seeff’s managing director for the seaboard, said a weak rand and lower inflation outlook had fuelled the buying frenzy.
“Properties now comfortably sell within anything from a week to three months on average, and buyers are paying ever higher prices.
“Everybody wants to live and holiday here and there is only so much land and property to go around. Hence values just keep going up and up despite the fact that we are effectively still in a depressed economy.”