Over the last year or longer South Africa’s property media have regularly run claims from estate agents in outlying areas to the effect that they can offer good homes at exceptionally low prices – often 60% less than those of the larger cities or towns – but nowhere is this more true than in Oudtshoorn today, says Isidore Langenhoven, franchisee for the Rawson Property Group’s Oudtshoorn franchise.
“The prices of the 15,000 middle class homes in Oudtshoorn,” says Langenhoven, “reached all-time highs in 2006/2007 but fell back by 20% or in some cases even more in the subsequent crash – and despite rising between 5 and 8% over the last year, they are still at prices which, when compared with any similar prices elsewhere, appear almost ridiculously low.”
It is still possible, says Langenhoven, to purchase a well built two or three bedroom home on a 700 m2 to 1,000 m2 erf for R850,000 to R900,000 – and prices can go as low as R500,000 without the quality and appeal of the home being affected.
Over the years, says Langenhoven, Oudtshoorn has been sustained by a large military camp, a big SAPS training college (where he was an instructor for many years) and a well-known local technikon, Southern Cape College. In addition, he says, it has a viable agricultural community with sheep and ostrich farms, a variety of vegetables and fruit farms and a year-round tourist industry linked but not wholly dependent on the Cango Caves.
The town has become home to a proportionally larger number of retirees than in most South African centres. Many of these, says Langenhoven, are former SADF or civil servants who originally retired to the coast, found in time that their pensions were proving inadequate and then moved to Oudtshoorn, where they have been able to buy at one half or less than what they sold their Garden Route homes for and then enjoy the dividends of their small nest egg thus generated.
Oudtshoorn, says Langenhoven, is ideal for this sort of person because it has large private and provincial hospitals served by good local and visiting consultants. For this reason, too, along with its very dry climate, the town has proved ideal for those battling with or convalescing from lung infections.
The Garden Route town is also known for its excellent schools. Laerskool Wesbank is one of the most prominent junior schools in the Western Cape and continuously produces excellent academic and sporting results.
At the moment, he says, Oudtshoorn is in the spotlight again as a result of the always well attended KKNK Festival that is currently taking place. This always produces a few residential buyers and will no doubt do so again this year.
Looking ahead, Langenhoven predicts that the price rise already mentioned for the last year (5 to 8%) will continue. His message, therefore, is “buy now while the prices are still so reasonable because this situation cannot last more than another 12 to 15 months.
