Asset sales and services company The Alliance Group set a benchmark in property circles recently as they successfully sold a modest, double story building on a 476 square metre stand along the internationally acclaimed Camps Bay beachfront in Cape Town for R44-million.

Clear blue skies, a pristine white palm fringed beach and an azure blue sea greeted the thronging crowd that attended the hotly contested auction. Most of the major players in the local property sector were present with upcountry and international buyers also showing interest and jetting in for a chance to bid on this once in a lifetime investment opportunity.

As the midday temperature rose so too did the fierce bidding war between two high profile bidders, Zunaid Moti and an unidentified lady bidder from the United Kingdom. With fleeting glances and phone bids being carefully scrutinized auctioneer Rael Levitt, in harmony with the eager crowd, eventually pronounced the bid — ‘Gone’ — for R 40-million to the elated Johannesburg buyer Mr Moti, CEO of the Abalengani Group.

Moments after the auction, before the deal was accepted by the sellers, the under-bidder came in with a bid of R44-million which was immediately accepted by the seller.

One of the benefits of this transaction is that the property was purchased with pre-approved development plans catering to both residential and retail purposes. Two levels of parking are included below ground with 17 parking bays, eleven apartments and eleven storerooms totaling 1100 square metres residential space. An additional 200 square metre area is earmarked for retail and restaurant purposes.

According to the auctioneers the buyer will knock down the property, thus paying R92 000 per square metre and making this one of the highest prices ever paid for a development site in Africa.

“We are extremely happy with the price achieved and it shows an increase of more than 300 percent over the R13.2-million originally paid when we auctioned this same building three and a half years ago”, commented Levitt. “The attendance at this auction as well as the price achieved also sends out a clear signal that there is still significant interest in the SA property sector with real returns to be achieved. Despite the recent negativity in the property markets the old adage that good property always sells for good prices applies here."

Camp Bay has a reputation as one of the most sought after destinations in the world attracting the international elite and today’s Alliance Group auction certainly justified this positioning.

“When we auctioned the building three years ago for R13.2-million, the story hit national headlines as being the highest price ever paid for a small property. The buyers have now sold for R44-million and did almost nothing to the property besides their holding cost. The return shows that good property always sells and there is simply no better investment than prime real estate”.