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PICS: Scandal, shocks and opulence top of list in 2016's best luxury property buys

Cape Town - From the sale of the world's most expensive house to where SA's wealthy live, disappearing millions and land expropriation - these are Fin24's top property reads for the year.

1) R290m home: German couple ditch lavish coastal towns for Cape Town

They had their eyes set on the sought-after seaside lifestyle in Ibiza or Saint-Tropez, but their hearts went with Cape Town instead.

This is how it all started for the young German couple who forked out R290m, the highest price ever for a house in South Africa and Africa.

The award-winning house nestled in Bantry Bay along Cape Town's swanky Atlantic Seaboard that they fell in love with.

VIEW GALLERY: Inside the R290m home

2) Inside Sasol’s new mega R2bn Sandton HQ

Africa’s largest rooftop garden, a state-of-the art fitness centre, cafés and an art gallery are just a few features of Sasol’s new multi-billion rand head office in Sandton.

It is also a 5 Star Green Star rated building, has four 1 850kva generators to provide 100% power redundancy, is self-shading to reduce energy costs and has indigenous plants.

Fin24 was invited to take a tour of the building. Have a look at the photographs displaying Sasol Place’s features.

3) At R15.6bn, world’s most expensive house on sale

Buyers from the Middle East and North America were lining up to potentially own the Villa Les Cedres mansion in France, which was up for grabs at a princely $1.1bn (R15.62bn).

Former owners and guests of the property, situated on the South of France's Cote d'Azur near Nice, include Belgian King Leopold II, Charlie Chaplin and Elizabeth Taylor.

It has ten bedrooms, a 50-metre swimming pool and a 14.164 hectare botanical park containing 15 000 plants and nearly 20 greenhouses with rare tropical flora.

The garden is regarded as a national heritage site by the French government. The house also features stables for up to 30 horses as well as a ballroom and a chapel.

Look at this wonder.

4) Where SA's richest people live

The Cape Town suburb of Camps Bay is likely the most exclusive suburb in South Africa, while the most exclusive suburb in Johannesburg is Sandhurst.

That is according to the South Africa 2016 Wealth Report by New World Wealth. As part of the report, the top towns and suburbs in SA were ranked in terms of the number of homes valued at R20m or more in each area.

Check out this infographic

5) Top 10 estates in SA revealed

Residential estate Steyn City has shot up into the top four of South Africa’s top 10 residential estates.

The New World Wealth annual top 10 SA residential estates saw new entrants such as Steyn City in Johannesburg and Whalerock Ridge in Plettenberg Bay.

Characteristics of the top estates include good security, activities like golf and horse riding, facilities like shops and children playgrounds, well designed houses of high quality, the spacing of houses, views including scenery and wildlife, the appeal to wealthy buyers and the resale and price growth potential.

6) R50m for Gary Player’s grand Karoo retreat

One of the greatest players in the history of golf, Gary Player, who calls his home “Heaven on Earth", has placed it in the market for R50m.

Rietfontein, the magnificent Karoo stud farm, has been home to Player and his family for the past 44 years. Described by Player himself as a place of true bliss or “Heaven on Earth”, it is located on the Oorlogspoort River just outside Colesberg and is far from city lights, noise and pollution.

He shared with Fin24 what he loves most about his home.

7)  What highest bidder will get for buying ex-Abil boss Leon Kirkinis’ mansion

The luxury home of former African Bank CEO Leon Kirkinis, who is believed to have sketched the concept of the beach house on a serviette in a Hermanus restaurant, was placed on auctioned by High Street Auctions in July.

The ultramodern mansion, also referred to as the “glass house” because of its distinct architectural nature, is situated high on cliffs overlooking the ocean off Rocklands Road in Rooi Els in the Western Cape.

The property, which was on the market for the last two years for R70m, got a bid of R30m, but Kirkinis said "no thanks".

8)  Millions 'disappear' from Cape estate agency account

The owner of a Cape Town real estate agency says he was shocked to discover that millions have "disappeared" from his trust account.
 
"I do not know what happened to the money, but I am going to get to the bottom of this," Beyers Swanepoel Trollip, principal of Beyers Realty Group, told Fin24.

The group was later placed under provisional liquidation by the Western Cape High Court in Cape Town.

Read more about the case here.

9)  R90m Clifton mansion for Christo Wiese's daughter

A bid of R90m on behalf of Clare Wiese, daughter of billionaire businessman Christo Wiese, 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.


10)  The right to expropriate property

Land - it is a controversial topic that keeps on popping up and is being pushed hard by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

In the run up to the elections, President Jacob Zuma carried out an outflanking manoeuvre against the EFF by raising the prospect of land seizure. Speaking in Rustenburg, he referred to the “land that was stolen from us” and asked why stolen land should be paid for.

Fin24 columnist Terry Bell looks at what the Constitution says about land redistribution.

Read Fin24's top stories trending on Twitter:


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