The first auction at the IFA/JCI-owned Boschendal Estate achieved "pleasing" prices says agent Andrew Golding, CEO of Pam Golding Properties. Three properties were sold raising R43m.
A South African businessman outbid the rest of the potential buyers when agreeing to pay R23.5m for the historic De Goode Hoop homestead on the estate. Golding says the buyer intends renovating the property and then relocating to the house which was first occupied in 1821. The homestead, which comes with 21 ha of land, is one of 16 "heritage founder estates" on the 2 200ha Boschendal project.
Two vacant 21ha strips of undeveloped land were also sold today - one for R10m, the other for R9.5m. The buyers will only be allowed to build their own homes on the land. Golding says the sale price of the land values the entire estate as worth R1.2bn. This looks a stretch as only 220ha of the estate is to be sold for development, 90% of the estate being retained as a working farm.
Golding told Moneyweb 250 people participated in the auction, held on the estate which is situated near Franchoek in the Western Cape. Two of the prize properties intended to be part of the package - a cottage on 29ha owned by Cecil John Rhodes and a 400ha farm - were taken off the block as "their conditions would have made it too onerous on a buyer at auction". Golding says there is serious interest in the two properties which will be sold privately. Their likely sales prices would be R25m and R100m respectively.
The sale will provide a welcome boost to the partners, both of which are JSE-listed companies. It is sure to ease concerns at Nedbank over the R200m loan it has outstanding to cash-strapped IFA, a business registered in Kuwait but managed out of Dubai. IFA, which is also a partner in the Zimbali Estate in KZN, recently declared a dispute over the final R40m owed to the construction company developing a five star hotel at Zimbali. JCI the historic mining company which was used as a slush fund by assassinated corporate thief Brett Kebble.
