Clifton beach to get a new des res after R20.35m plot auction

Got R5 in your pocket? It’ll buy you a square centimetre of SA’s most desirable land — and you’ll even get 12c change.

A 417m² plot overlooking Fourth Beach in Clifton, on Cape Town’s Atlantic seaboard, was sold at auction this week for R20.35m, or R4.88/cm².

The plot came with approved plans for a three-storey, five-bedroom house and the buyer, who wants to remain anonymous, said building would start soon.

Auctioneer Joff van Reenen, who opened bids at R15m, said there was “spirited bidding” at the Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town and among telephone and online buyers.

High Street Auctions’ director for the Western Cape, Rodney Beck, said plots in Clifton’s bungalow section between Victoria Road and the beach were “almost impossible to buy on the open market”.

Only two Clifton bungalow plots had changed hands in the past decade, he said. “In fact, in the whole of Clifton fewer than 10 vacant land transactions have been recorded since 2009, with the total value of these properties in the region of R200m.

“Vacant stands on the beach in Clifton are therefore unquestionably the rarest and most exclusive residential development sites in South Africa.”

The house to be built on the plot has been designed by Cape Town architect, poet and birdwatcher Vernon Head. Beck said it would have a glass elevator, a gym and five en-suite bedrooms.

“The total blueprint floor area, including balconies, spans more than 470m².”