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Rawson in Century City reports steady rises in value

2008-02-04

The arrival of a new manager, Val Kruger, and a new number two, Linda Carter, both long serving Rawson Properties agents, has brought about a marked rise in sales in the region of 200% at Rawson Properties’ Century City franchise. The franchise is owned jointly by Mark and Esme Vladislavich, who are also franchisees for Rawson’s Milnerton, Plattekloof, Edgemead and Bothasig franchises.

“It looks very much as if we will soon be selling six or more units and letting ten every month,” said Esme Vladislavich.

Rawson Properties’ big advantage at Century City, she said, is that they are one of only two estate agencies actually to have offices on the site, i.e. in The Island Club precinct (their offices are just 50 metres from Protea’s Island Club Hotel). They will shortly be moving into their own offices, bought outright, and these will be equally strategic and equally high profile. Walk-in enquiries, said Vladislavich, have been coming in at the rate of a dozen a day.

Kruger said that this Rawson Properties franchise handles only resales, the original launch always being controlled by the main developers. This arrangement does, however, give them access to a huge stock base in seven developments: The Island Club, Century Place, Century View, Bougain Villas, Villa Italia, Knightsbridge and Century-on-Lake - and they confidently expect that before long to be handling resales at Waterstone.

They are also, said Vladislavich, involved in the sale and letting of commercial and retail space at The Island Club.

The residential units on Rawson Properties’ stock list currently vary in price from R995,000 to R4,5 million. Carter said that most of these have risen in value by some 30% in under two years. Eighteen months ago a two bedroom unit in Knightsbridge sold for R740,000. That same unit is now on the market at a price of over R1 million.

Rents, said Kruger, have witnessed a similar steady increase in value.

“We are now operating in a price range of R3,600 to R17,000 per month (the latter for a fully furnished Knightsbridge unit) and these rentals have risen far faster than predicted.”

Any resale buy at Century City, said Vladislavich, will be a good one because fast rising building costs have made the existing accommodation increasingly sought after and have pulled up the prices of all property in the Century City precinct.

Asked why buyers are attracted in such large numbers to Century City, Vladislavich said that it is “very much a question of lifestyle”, a combination of position (“Few sites in the Cape are better placed to access the city, the V&A Waterfront, the freeways, the airport and, of course, the huge Canal Walk shopping centre”), the security (“This is quite possibly the most secure large area in the whole of the Western Cape”) and the high standard of design (“All the buildings here are new and all are attractive”). All, too, are within an easy walk of the Century City’s wetlands which form such an attractive recreational area for the whole precinct.

Vladislavich said that there are currently four selling staff at the Century City office and she is looking to double this number within the year.

For further information please contact Mark Vladislavich on 083 626 6157 or 021 555 4900.