HENRIETTE GELDENHUYS
Cape Town - When raucous brandy-gulping and foul-mouthed rapper Jack Parow pretended to be the proud owner of a mansion in Nettleton Road, Clifton, he set tongues wagging.
But it’s no joke that the street is the most expensive in South Africa.
Lightstone Property, which analyses property trends, placed Nettleton Road, where the average price of properties is R47.55 million, at the top of its list of most expensive streets in South Africa.
“It’s the most sought-after road on the African continent”, said Annette Hepburn, Pam Golding’s resident agent in Clifton.
It’s one of seven Cape Town and three Joburg streets that made the exclusive top 10 list.
Leeukoppie Road in Llandudno, where the cost of property averages R23.7m, was third on the list, Victoria Road in Camps Bay was fifth with average prices at R23.1m, De Wet Road in Bantry Bay was seventh at R21.2m, Sillery Avenue in Constantia was eighth at R21.05m, Arcadia Road in Bantry Bay ninth at R20.9m and Ravine Road, Bantry Bay, 10th with average prices at R20.6m.
Joburg’s pricey properties were in one of the country’s wealthiest suburbs, Sandhurst.
Killarney Road was in second place, with property prices averaging R26.8m, Coronation Road fourth at R23.175m and Saxon Road sixth at R22.02m.
Parow’s parody created the impression he was the proud owner of a R70m, 2 000m2 Nettleton Road property.
It was highlighteded by fashion blog superbalist.com and sparked an outcry among some of his fans who lambasted the rapper, with his trade mark oversized cap and handlebar moustache, for being a fake.
Disappointed fans were concerned that Parow, who made being common and poor cool, was as larney as billionaire businessman Tokyo Sexwale, who recently sold his Clifton mansion in Kloof Road for R70m.
But the real owner of the Nettleton Road home is an advertising executive based in Durban who has sold part of his business to a British multinational marketing and advertising company.
He was described as “laid-back” and “an exceptional businessman” by Seeff Atlantic Seaboard agent Lance Cohen.
According to Cohen, the owner recently turned down a cash offer of R145m for two adjacent properties in Nettleton Road, which includes the one where Parow’s parody was shot.
Cohen achieved the highest priced yet for property in Nettleton Road when he sold a mansion on behalf of an offshore property company for R111m to a Joburg computer executive in his thirties in November.
Sexwale’s Clifton home was a 500m2 property on a 920m2 plot. It constituted a 15th of the land size and a third of the house size of the Sandhurst home in Oxford Avenue he sold at the same time for R40m, said Cohen. The Joburg house was a 1 500m2 home on 14 000m2 plot.
The homes were sold as part of his divorce proceedings, Cohen said.
Hepburn said she was marketing a “green, zen-type” triple storey family home bordering Lions Head in Nettleton Road for R39m while a “magnificent palatial villa” was being marketed for R130m.
Jackie Rosenberg, Pam Golding agent for Bantry Bay, said the agency recently sold a De Wet Road property for R50m.
She said the area’s windfree climate, north-facing views over the Atlantic Seaboard with Lion’s Head as backdrop attracted leaders of industry.
African buyers often came from Nigeria, Senegal and Kenya while European buyers followed the sun, leading them to spend six months of the year in their Bantry Bay residences, said Rosenberg.
“Cape Town is a very special part of the world, that’s why it’s so sought after.”
Weekend Argus