Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
MOUNTAINS OF THE SEA
Coastal villages of Kleinmond and Betty’s Bay have it all – unspoilt views, vleis and the ocean just an hour’s drive from Cape Town International Airport
These coastal villages offer two of the best laid-back lifestyles you could possibly want.
COLIN MICHELSON, SEEFF
BETTY’S BAY
FROM Gordon’s Bay to RooiEls, the R44 – or Clarence Drive – is considered among the best scenic drives, not just in the Western Cape or South Africa, but the world.
Whether you’re travelling to Hermanus from Cape Town, or vice versa, it’s a wonderful route, especially now the roadworks have been completed. It’s so lovely, that it demands simply to be driven (never mind the price of petrol).
Along this route you will encounter some small towns, including Kleinmond and Betty’s Bay.
“These coastal villages offer two of the best laid-back lifestyles you could possibly want,” says Colin Michelson, Seeff Betty’s Bay agent.
“They are just over an hour’s drive from Cape Town International airport and the city, and are fairly unspoilt, fronted by a beautiful coastline and white sandy beaches.”
Besides the magnificent mountainous backdrop, pristine fynbos surroundings – including Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve – and the beaches, these towns offer clear, unpolluted skies, little traffic and relative security, says Michelson.
Betty’s Bay is the smaller of the two and has no street lights, so you can enjoy nights of a thousand stars.
“And if you are very still and quiet you may meet a porcupine or two as these nocturnal creatures roam freely in the village.”
Seeff’s Kleinmond agents Mike Tribelhorn and Pam Smith say their town offers excellent amenities for residents and visitors including a gym, restaurant on the beachfront, the lifestyle shopping environment of Harbour Road which is populated by craft, fabric, entertainment and restaurants overlooking the harbour, and whale watching.
“There is also a nine-hole golf course with sea views from every fairway, a hiking club, bowls, tennis, jukskei, canoeing, white-water rafting, cycling, a chess club, bird watching and popular fishing spots.
“Property in Betty’s Bay is still quite affordable given the stunning seaside location,” says Michelson.
“The market remains steady with a wide range of property still being sold here, including vacant land sales from R200 000 to R400 000, small holiday cottages from around R1.4 million, and beachfront locations costing upwards of R3.5m.”
Aside from local buyers, Betty’s Bay property appeals to people from across the country looking for holiday or retirement homes, and is popular with buyers from the
UK, Germany and other northern European countries, says Michelson.
The average selling price for a residential property in Kleinmond central is R1.35m, says Lightstone, and for the standalone suburb of Heuningkloof, the average is R1.8m.
“Kleinmond offers a range of property to choose from, priced from about R1.3m to R2.3m for a spacious three-bedroom home with a flat and swimming pool, and R5.95m for an eight-bedroom self-catering guest house in Klein Berlyn,” say Tribelhorn and Smith.
“We attract local buyers as well as those from other provinces including Gauteng, North West, Mpumalanga and KZN. Most are retiring, but we are seeing an increase in younger executives and entrepreneurs relocating here as they are able to use technology to conduct business.”
Roughly three decades ago, while on a road trip around the country, the journey took me through Betty’s Bay, then just a scattering of cottages with no mains electricity. Within a year I’d bought a piece of ground, built my first house and four years later I moved here to live full time. Having spent 20 years flying into capital cities of the world for a living, settling here was the perfect antidote to counter the stresses attached to that lifestyle. Now I live in a semiforest fed by mountain streams, and mountain hiking trails10 minutes’ walk away.
RESIDENT, JEAN DA CRUZ