Johannesburg - A property development involving one of South Africa’s wealthiest families has collapsed.
The most recent development on the ever-growing list of property victims is the Hartenbos Landgoed eco development between the Hartenbos and Little Brak rivers, close to Mossel Bay.
On Monday Sake24 confidentially learned that this development formed part of Rita Krok Family Trust Developments, which was placed into liquidation some time ago.
This is only one of several family trust companies belonging to the wealthy Krok family. Rita Krok is the wife of the magnate Solly Krok who, with his twin brother, Abe Krok, established the Gold Reef City casino complex in Johannesburg.
The Hartenbos development, comprising more than 47.3ha, will be put under the hammer on March 22 by Auction Alliance.
Of the 122 houses on the estate, 28 three-bedroom and 43 two-bedroom houses will be auctioned.
A piece of empty ground in the middle of the estate is also on offer, which would give a successful bidder the opportunity to build another 62 houses.
Auction Alliance chief executive
Rael Levitt expects that the property could fetch between R40m and R50m on the auction.
Ish Hendricks, also of Auction Alliance, said that owing to the investment opportunity the development had attracted considerable interest.
The great number of property-development liquidations reflects how seriously the leisure property market has been impacted by the economic downturn.
But Absa’s latest quarterly property report indicated that coastal markets showed some recovery in the fourth quarter of last year.
In that quarter southern Cape house prices were 14.1% up on the corresponding period of 2009.
- Sake24
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