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Cape Town - Gauteng residents looking to holiday in Clifton and Bantry Bay on Cape Town’s Atlantic Seaboard are prepared to fork out up to R50 000 a day for holiday homes over the festive season.
And travellers from the UK, mainland Europe and even Australia will go as high a R90 000 a day if the property has all the bells and whistles – including a butler, private chef and a full service staff complement.
That’s according to Brendan Miller, principal of Lew Geffen Sotheby’s International Realty on the Atlantic Seaboard.
He said their biggest spender to date has been from the UK and was looking for a family-sized villa to rent in Clifton for the festive season. He was prepared to pay up to R90 000 per day for the perfect location.
”That price bracket isn’t necessarily a massive house perched at the top of Clifton, though,” explained company chair Lew Geffen.
“It depends entirely on what people want. In previous years some of the bungalows on Clifton’s beaches have commanded as much per day as villas 10 times their size further up the mountainside.”
Geffen said the average asking price for luxury family-size properties in Clifton over the peak festive season from the middle of December to the middle of January is between R30 000 and R60 000 per day.
“Our biggest client base for these properties in December and January, and the source of most rental enquiries is families from Gauteng. Their first request is generally for seaside properties – beach bungalows or apartments on the sea side of Victoria Road, which is the lower road through Clifton,” said Geffen.
Only studio or one-bedroom seaside apartments will be cheaper than the R30 000 per day mark in Clifton in the peak period, or those that are unrenovated and in poor condition.
“That said, you can still get a higher daily rental for an old, poorly furnished apartment in Clifton than you would for holiday homes anywhere else in the country,” said Geffen.
Miller said Cape Town’s popularity has certainly been helped by the fact that major newspapers in the US and UK have named the city a top global holiday destination.
“We’re fielding a steady stream of queries for holiday properties from overseas – several a week as opposed to a few a month. Our top inbound origin market for high end summer rentals is the UK followed by Germany, the Netherlands and Australia. Most want Clifton or Bantry Bay, but Camps Bay is also on the list of highly desirable properties, and they’re slightly cheaper,” said Miller.
The average daily rental for villas in Camps Bay during peak season is between R15 000 and R25 000 per day.
Geffen said while the domestic tourist season tends to be just over a month long in line with school holidays and industry closures, the international season lasts from early November to March or April.
“We do see some international visitors staying for the duration, but those travelling long haul will usually rent a property for between two weeks and a month at a time. We’re already taking bookings for February and March next year at rates that are much the same as December," he said.
“Purely from a self-catering accommodation spend point of view, Cape Town is looking to have a very good summer 2014.”
- Fin24
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