Loading - Please Wait
Have your say
What Do You Expect Interest Rates To Do Next?
Increase
Stay The Same
Decrease
I Have No Idea


Cluster schemes are now the choice of most buyers in SA 2009-06-22
The swing away from standalone homes on their own plots to higher density cluster, sectional title townhouses and apartments has sped up recently, says Tony Clarke, MD of Rawson Properties.

What is more, says Clarke, the trend is evident all over the country, in all price categories – from R500,000 flats to R10 million plus apartments.

There are, says Clarke, four main reasons for this, the chief of which is affordability.

"Whatever price range you are discussing, you will always get more space and more “home” per rand for a high density cluster type apartment then you will for a standalone home – and in these tougher times this counts a great deal."

Other factors pushing people in the direction of cluster projects, said Clarke, are

  • the desire to cut commuting times and be close to business centres;
  • the increasing mobility of people, especially young people, and their preference for lock up and go homes which they can leave empty for short or long periods; and
  • security and the savings brought about sharing the costs of this with other residents in the same complex.
"The huge demand for gated villages and estates has enabled landlords to charge a 20 to 40% premium for this type of lifestyle," said Clarke.
  • similar savings on communal facilities like a swimming pool, a garden or a gymnasium.
With the call for this type of home so strong, developers, says Clarke, should be placed to cater for it – but, he adds, high holding and building costs are still making it very difficult to produce these projects at the right price.

“This situation is, however, likely to change,” he said.

Those thinking of buying into a cluster development, said Clarke, should check the scheme’s year-end financial statements to make sure that they are not letting themselves in for unexpected special and emergency levies which in recent years have characterised many of the poorly managed sectional title projects.

“If a body corporate or property manager is unable to produce such balance sheets when asked, take this as a warning – you should never buy into a sectional title project which cannot prove its financial stability. The last thing you want is a scheme which deteriorates through a lack of maintenance or which has to raise an emergency levy to cope with a previous lack of maintenance.”

Prospective buyers should also take a look around the project in the evenings to ensure that the habits of those living there will suit their own lifestyle.

“For example, a young couple may dislike living among older people and older people should probably avoid a complex in which the majority of residents are lively and sometimes rowdy students.”