Units in the eight-floor French House building, which was built in 1950 and has been renamed Mapungubwe House, will be ready for occupation late next year.

Apart from furnished one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments fitted to four-star hotel standards, there will be valet parking, a cigar lounge and a state-of-the-art gym. The apartments are priced from R440,000-R2m (for a penthouse).

Mapungubwe is named after an archaeological site in Limpopo Province, discovered in the 1930s by a local farmer.

Consortium member Gustav Holtzhausen says 40 units have already been sold.