Once in a Lifetime

700m from Constantia Nek. You may never again see an incredible piece of land of this size – 50 000 square metres (12 Acres) available within the residential suburbs of Cape Town – 5km from Constantia Village shopping centre and around 7km from the Hout Bay beaches…. You may talk about it again – when passing on your way through Constantia Nek – you may look wistfully upon the farm and comment that would you believe, you could have bought that land somewhere in the R20m’s… and it included an almost finished 700m2 modern home……
It’s really hard to imagine the privilege of being able to live in such spectacular beauty, with frontage directly onto World Heritage Site – Table Mountain – in the access-controlled Orange Kloof conservation precinct. You have a natural mountain stream feeding your own dam, and another creating an unspoiled and unexplored densely overgrown watercourse. And a jaw-dropping, dramatic backdrop of mountains.
Perhaps keep 20 or more horses on the property – there is an existing sizeable level paddock and the perimeter of the property is just over 1km long – so one should be able to create a reasonable exercise track. But the real joy is to ride in the adjacent Orange Kloof reserve….with a permit of course.
Thankfully, this is one property where you’d have a hard time getting permission to carve up the land into 50 plots of 1000m2 each. I suppose if you really had the urge to destroy special places, you may prevail in the long run, but there is no guarantee. That having been said, there certainly is scope for sensitive further development – an additional large dwelling, and even an additional cottage. There are 2 perfect sites to build them on – where all of the homes would have privacy and incredible outlooks.
The existing home has 4 really spacious upstairs bedrooms – main with full en-suite and dressing room, and one bedroom with its own en-suite and the other 2 sharing a dressing room and separate full en-suite. It is however fairly easy to let all 4 bedrooms have their own en-suites if you were to use the shared dressing room as a bathroom. Downstairs has a spacious guest bedroom – also with full en-suite. Many of the rooms have feature bulkheads to add interest and dimension to the already high ceilings.
The living areas pivot around a dramatic double volume atrium – with the expansive kitchen as the anchor. There’s formal living room, family room, study and dining room – and then under the house a multiple car garage of over 130m2 – at least 6 cars will fit. The onerous work is done – tiling, showers, baths, sanitaryware, plumbing, plugs, switches and downlights are all in.
The owners would prefer to sell sooner rather than later, but are continuing with the planned completion of the house. If you’d prefer to add or your own signature to a property, then I would act now, and strike a deal that allows you to complete final touches. Wrought iron, or glass ballustrades? Sand blasted or clear glass for the showers? Stainless steel splashbacks behind the granite in the kitchen, or perhaps mosaics…? The choice will be yours.
If we unpack the basics – you’d have to agree that a 12 acre farm here should be an absolute minimum of R20m. I’m not talking about a few acres. I’m talking about A DOZEN ACRES….. and that also happens to be a dozen acres in a one-of-a-kind spectacular setting.
The house? You can’t build a 700m2 house like this – even unfinished – for R9 or R10m – all things considered.
I really believe that if you have the vision to complete the last 5% of the building finishes, and you have the resources and knowledgeable experts to properly landscape and enhance this land, this farm could be a trophy property that rewards not only in value, but in a world-class lifestyle for yourself, your family, and your guests.