Massive interest in 21m² cottage for R1m

A PINT-SIZED cottage‚ on the market for almost R1-million‚ is raising eyebrows in Cape Town‚ even among residents accustomed to ridiculous-sounding prices in the buoyant high-end property market.

The online advert for the 21m² “cottage” stirred up so much madness that agents had to remove it.

The estate agent responsible for the property in Gardens‚ Jenn Baker‚ has received hundreds of inquiries.

RE/MAX Pinelands manager Morven Karsten said that in her 13 years in the industry, it was something she had never seen before. “I don’t think we were expecting quite this response, but [it] was from a mixed bag of people who were interested, and then people who were saying: ‘You’ve got to be kidding’.”

The tiny house sports one bedroom‚ a kitchenette‚ a lounge and an en suite bathroom‚ but the owner is rewarded with a 74m² exclusive use yard and a vista on one of the seven natural wonders of the world. The asking price is R950 000. Baker said: “It’s not the agents who dictate the price‚ it’s the buyers. They are prepared to pay that price.

“There are people who want to put in offers. We withdrew it from the websites yesterday because the response was so great‚” she said. But this also got people upset. “If somebody sees the listing and the agent doesn’t respond they get irate.

“They don’t understand that she’s probably trying to work through 200and-something-odd inquiries.”

Karsten said “There’s been a good response from people saying . . . it’s exactly what they want . . . they want to live there‚ it’s central”.

However‚ not all inquiries were polite: “Some of them had quite sharp words about it. Some were shocked.”