Cape Town - A bid of R90m on behalf of Clare Wiese, daughter of billionaire businessman Christo, for a luxury 6-bedroom house in Clifton, Cape Town, has set a new record for residential property bought on auction in South Africa.
The house was previously on the market for R150m, but no buyer would bite.
“If you market your property at the correct asking price for the area and the current market conditions you will find a buyer, as this auction has demonstrated,” said Joff van Reenen of High Street Auction Company.
“The auction is non-suspensive, which means that the buyer will either pay cash or have a pre-approved bond.”
The bank instructed sale is now under confirmation for a five-day period and no other offers will be entertained during that time.
The previous residential auction record - for a house in Sandhurst, Johannesburg - was about R30m lower, according to Van Reenen.
He said before the auction there were more than 5 000 serious online views of the mansion as well as hundreds of thousands of mere curious views. "Live responses" were obtained from 29 countries.
Van Reenen said the sale proves that only the right sort of properties are auctionable, and while auctioneers and realtors generally view each other as natural enemies, under the right circumstance well-aligned companies can work well together and get the right result.
Lew Geffen, chair of Lew Geffen Sotheby’s International Realty that jointly marketed the Clifton mansion, agrees with Van Reenen that when a trophy home finally comes onto the market as a bank-instructed sale "it will always attract the right buyer at the right price because it corrects the market".
“Mark Thatcher’s house in Cape Town was sold under similar circumstances and an auction is an outstanding way to ensure a quick, effective and market-related result,” said Geffen.
The record sale price for a house sold (not just on auction) in Clifton was R111m (including VAT) obtained by Seeff for a luxury home in Nettleton Road bought by a Johannesburg buyer. to a Johannesburg buyer. The previous highest price for a house in the suburb was R60m paid for a Nettleton Road property in 2010.
Read Fin24's top stories trending on Twitter: Fin24’s top stories