Prime real estate worth hundreds of millions of rands went under the hammer at the end of June in the largest auction measured on sale lot volume ever conducted by South Africa’s leading specialist property auctioneers, The High Street Auction Co.
In excess of 50 properties in 41 sale lots including upmarket office parks, retail centres, industrial developments, residential manor houses and even a cemetery completed a compelling sale catalogue for the exclusive auction held at Summer Place in Johannesburg’s Hyde Park.
And even at High Street Auction Co. Lead Auctioneer Joff van Reenen’s customary swift, professional pace that ensured bidders remained rivetted, the sheer volume of the catalogue made for a marathon sale of more than two and a half hours.
- Six elegant blocks of executive business suites in the leafy, secure Tuscany Office Park strategically located in Rivonia in the north of Johannesburg, just a stone’s throw from the N1 and the Witkoppen Interchange. The strongly-tenanted Sections 5 to 10 went under the hammer as Property Fund-listed individual auction lots, but were eventually snapped up by a single buyer for a collective R74.55 million;
- The highly-anticipated South African auction first and a heavenly business opportunity – a 12 500-plot private cemetery in Winterveld AH, located in the North West Province but falling within the zoning boundaries of the City of Tshwane. The hammer on this fiercely contested lot finally fell at R5.06m to a buyer from Pretoria;
- More than 25 000m² of agricultural land in Midrand; one of the most desirable development regions in Gauteng because of its ideal location midway between Johannesburg and Pretoria. The land, which has easy access to the M1 and arterial routes, can be rezoned for high-density residential development. With numerous bidders interested in this lot, the hammer finally fell at R13.2m;
- A motor showroom in prime position on Bram Fischer Drive in Randburg, which as a corporate disposal lot sold for an impressive R16,5m; and
- A spectacular seafront apartment at Sheffield Beach in Ballito on the KwaZulu-Natal north coast, offering three bedrooms, an expansive open plan entertainment area as well as underground parking. This oceanside dream was bought at the auction for R3.19m.
“It’ll take a while to do the final sums but it’s already clear that this, our biggest ever sale, will go down in the High Street Auction Co’s history books as a Red-Letter sale day.
“The fact that the current wealth of market supply is being met by equal demand indicates there is still money flowing through our sluggish economy, which is also extremely encouraging,” says Van Reenen.
