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Changing Face Of Ct's Woodstock
Property24
25 January 2007
In a year which has seen sales of units in new residential developments slow down by 40% to 50%, Upper East Side, the R100 million mixed-use development (a joint venture between Madison Property Fund Managers/Swish Properties in Woodstock) has bucked the trend. It has proved conclusively that a competitively priced development in a convenient location will still find buyers without difficulty.
This was said recently by Richard Edwards, Manager, New Business, for Nedbank Corporate Property Finance (Cape). Nedbank is funding the development.
Introduced to a select group of Madison, Swish and Blend Properties core investor clients just three months ago (and never given a full scale marketing launch), the residential units in Upper East Side are now 84% sold out (in unit terms) and 80% (in value). This equates to 114 out of 125 sold. Sales of the commercial space has also gone well, deals being concluded at R5,500 to R6,200p per m².
"We have not seen a take up as fast as this for a long while," said Edwards.
The building, sited in Brickfield Road, was formerly Seardel's Bonwit clothing factory. In its converted form it will deliver to the Woodstock precinct three levels of commercial units (8,000m2 in all) and three levels of residential units before the end of 2007.
Edwards said that clever design had enabled the architects to create apartments that are comfortable, open plan, light filled and offer great mountain or Table Bay views. These, he said, vary in size from one bedroom bachelor pads (with 38 m2) through 80m2 two bedroom units to 90m2 three bedroom units. The top-of-the-range penthouses are 171m2.
Prices vary from R340,000 for a bachelor unit - "a truly competitive price" - to R1,1 million for a standard penthouse unit and R2,1 million for a luxury penthouse.
These prices, said Edwards, equate to R11,000 per m2 for the luxury penthouses and R7,500 per m2 for the standard apartments.
"Again," he said, "prices are competitive. Apartments in this price range have not been seen in Cape Town for at least 18 months."
All the accommodation, whether residential or retail, will be served by a new three level parking garage with 160 bays. The complex will be entered from Brickfield Road and the parking will come on stream simultaneously with the residential units.
"At least some of the success of Upper East Side," added Edwards, "can be attributed to the developers realising that buyers today want a live, work and play environment with high level security. This is exactly what Upper East Side is providing."
The complex, he said, will have a trendy paved and subtly lit piazza with coffee and boutique shops, a full-scale gymnasium, a swimming pool and a roof level leisure and entertainment area.
Any investment here, said Edwards, will be enhanced by the rapid transformation of the Woodstock precinct and by the buoyancy of the rental market in this area.
"At least three major redevelopments are in the pipeline in this area," said Edwards, "and more are known to be on the way. At the moment the face of Woodstock is changing faster than that of any other Cape Town suburb - and investors have the comfort of knowing that with Groote Schuur Hospital, UCT and the Cape Technikon all within easy commuting distance, any well priced project here will never lack tenants."
Original article published at www.property24.com.
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