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Sep 25, 2007:
Rare opportunity for property investors to snap up two of the country's "finest" jails.
Most of us would like to avoid spending any time in a jail, but some people are so taken by their charms - particularly the older ones - that they are becoming sought-after as homes or business venues.
They are hard to find, as hard as proverbial hen's teeth, says Wayne Rubidge of Pam Golding Properties. Which is why he is so amazed two Karoo jails recently came onto the market.
Many old jails are still being used in rural towns and villages in South Africa, but these two were decommissioned.
One, in Philippolis in the Free State, has been used as a guesthouse and the other, in Willowmore near the Garden Route, is mid-way through a renovation.
The Philippolis jail, which can sleep 28 (not all in one cell like you might expect in a modern prison!), is on the market for about R1,8m, while the Willowmore prison has a price tag of around R2,5m.
Admittedly Rubidge twisted one owner's arm into putting his historic offering on the market, though this was probably an easy task as old jails have proved to be a good investment to those fortunate enough to own one of these rarities.
Take Frans Mulder, a wildlife artist in Bedford who recently moved out of his coveted old prison. Estate agents in that area were all hoping to score that sale, however Mulder recently sold to a private buyer for an undisclosed sum
Talk in the sleepy hollow is that Mulder received an offer he simply couldn't refuse.
Mulder told Moneyweb's new property website Realestateweb he is indeed very happy with the money he made on his jail, but wasn't prepared to part with specific figures.
"I got a very high price for it," says Mulder, who attributes sharp price increases in Bedford directly to his sale.
"A property that was selling for R100 000 18 months ago is going for about R600 000 today. I made a very good return. I paid R150 000 for the ‘raw cell'," he said, adding that he put an additional R800 000 into transforming his eight-cell prison into a home.
The dungeon became a wine cellar.
Mulder's jail, from the mid-1800s, started life as part of a fort before being turned into a jail.
"The spaces are very unusual. Cells were 5m by 5m," he says of the building.
Mulder says there are "no ghosts" in that prison, though there are beautiful small whitewash drawings on stone walls. "They did little drawings of their wives or family," he said of the previous residents of a bygone era.
Mulder moved on to an Andries Stockenstroom home in the area, after selling his jail.
Kim Van Niekerk of Bedford Properties agrees that the jail was a good buy and says that generally in Karoo towns jails are a sound investment. "There is always demand for jails, churches and barns," she says.
These jails tend to be centrally located, which means they are in prime positions for business and residential purposes - unlike today where they are built away from city centres, points out Van Niekerk.
Rubidge says that the Karoo is popular among South Africans looking for a life-style change. "Philippolis remains in high demand among property investors, as evidenced by the great interest shown in the Laurens van der Post house," he notes.
Willowmore also has its rustic appeal, though be careful of what you say on the phone because the area still operates on a party line system - useful for the neighbourhood gossips but not ideal if you want to discuss confidential business deals.
Rubidge says that thanks to broadband via satellite, many city dwellers are finding it relatively easy to conduct their business over the Internet from places like Willowmore.
For Rubidge, the investment potential of historic jails is obvious. "These are like antiques. These are heritage pieces. They don't look like jails," he says.
