DAVID ISAACSON

A PROPERTY development company has come up with a novel approach to golf estates — they’re planning one in Pretoria where some units will sell for less than R500 000.

Living 4U CEO Adrian Coetzee says the complex, to be called African Renaissance, will have a projected turnover of up to R4-billion with total costs estimated at R2-billion.

The site has already been earmarked, opposite the Silver Lakes golf estate where Coetzee lives.

“All the rights are in place,” he says, adding they are looking at building 3 500 units. Apartments, from bachelor pads to three-bedroomed, will number 2 800, and there will be 410 town houses and 142 houses.

“The key about this is the economy of scale. African Renaissance won’t just be a golf estate, but a lifestyle estate. There will be several sporting facilities — tennis courts, squash, a basketball court, a soccer field, rock-climbing, a skate park.

“As a father of two boys, I can tell you that you need organised activities for kids. There’s money on the golf estates and it can be a big problem when you have children who are not supervised during the days. Unfortunately there are unsavoury activities.

“Of people who live on golf estates, 25 percent actually play golf, the other 75 percent want security, and so on.”

There will also be conference facilities, a hotel, spa and a shopping centre.

Coetzee came up with the idea of a low-cost estate while playing a round at his home course.

“I was on the sixth fairway. I was thinking how the golf industry is huge, and how many more black people are playing golf. I thought we have to make it easier for more South Africans to enjoy living in a golf estate, to make it more accessible.

“Eightypercent of our products will be under R1-million.”

In spite of the global economic meltdown, Coetzee believes Living 4U and its backers, London-listed property funds called Sapro (South African Property Opportunities plc) can sit out the market.

“The golf estates that have been affected are the leisure-related ones, which are holiday homes, not primary residences.

“The land already belongs to us, and we’re 10, 20 minutes away from Pretoria’s main business areas.

“We’re in this project for the next seven to 10 years. The market is right for this and we’re four years ahead of the market on this.”

There’s little to see on site at the moment, but as Coetzee says: “For the last four years we’ve been involved with it full time to get to this point.”

Source: The Times