Watch your neighbours turn as green as your new AstroTurf

It plays out in covetous glances or a blameless market survey, but the people next door want what you have

FROM having them snapping pictures of her custom-built shoe cupboard to questioning the pile on her newly-laid AstroTurf, Durban doctor Parushnee Naidoo knows all about competitive neighbours.

Naidoo, who lives on a luxury estate in the upmarket suburb of La Lucia, has barely exchanged pleasantries with a certain neighbour after the woman copied the design of her dream shoe closet.

“It was something on my bucket list. She came [to my] home and took pictures. When I asked her not to replicate the exact design, I was told I did not have a patent on the design,” said Naidoo.

Neighbourly rivalry among the upper class does not just play out in the movies and overseas — experts say it is prevalent in South African neighbourhoods too.

According to a new study by UK online estate agents Hatched — which examines the science of nextdoor nosey parkers — a landscaped garden, Mercedes-Benz, designer interior and the latest gadgets are likely to invoke the green-eyed monster in your neighbours.

The study looked at the competition between neighbours in terms of assets and the value of properties.

Of those surveyed, 45% were green with envy over their neighbours’ lush lawns and blooming flowerbeds, followed by the cars they drive, at 44%, designer interiors, at 31%, and the latest technology, at 20%.

Women are most likely to snoop and be jealous of their neighbours’ property.

More than 70% admitted they would like to see how much a neighbour’s property was worth if it was on the market.

Naidoo is accustomed to her neighbours’ rivalry.

“This thing about competition among neighbours is really hectic . . . it’s a mind-set of keeping up with the Joneses. Another neighbour orchestrated a dinner at my place so she could see my house.

“They want to know everything, whether it’s the size of your pool, whether you have a salt water or chlorinated pool, what kind of AstroTurf you have and what is the pile of your AstroTurf . . . it’s just ridiculous.”

Cape Town businesswoman Katherine Davy admitted she sometimes checked the value of her neighbours’ properties — but out of curiosity, not envy.

“In my experience, curiosity over a neighbour’s property is not motivated by jealousy, but rather by how the value stacks up against our own asset or investment. In Cape Town especially, the value of property has seen massive growth, so it’s nice to be able to compare the latest market value of a neighbour’s home to see what one’s own property could be worth.

“In South Africa, especially in the middle- to upper-class neighbourhoods, we are separated by high walls and fences. Most of the time people don’t know their neighbours, so being able to see over the fence via the internet satiates their curiosity and gives them a yardstick to compare themselves against,” said Davy.

Psychologist Ingrid Artus said neighbourly rivalry was not confined to middle- and upper-class neighbourhoods.

“While working in lower-income communities, I was told about an incident where a person’s property was destroyed by a jealous neighbour. In contrast to destroying assets, in middle- to upper-class areas, neighbours appear to outdo each other in terms of asset value.”

When people compared themselves to others, “they can either feel

Another neighbour orchestrated a dinner at my place so she could see my house . . . they want to know everything

wonderful about themselves, because they rate themselves as superior in some way, or they can feel terrible because they did not hit the mark”, Artus said.

“This type of behaviour can possibly be as addictive as gambling, since when we perceive ourselves as better than others, it can produce a feel-good rush that can cause a person to continue seeking out that feeling.”

But she warned that the quest to “keep up with the Joneses” could also lead to depression and anxiety if people believed they had failed to live up to the perceived standard.

Carol Reynolds of Pam Golding Properties said benchmarking a neighbour’s property was “not negative at all”.

She said: “People are simply curious as to the value of their investments. Homeowners understand the importance of location when purchasing property, so it is always good to know what a suburb fetches as an average, because this has a profound impact upon value.”