Lifestyle Living in the Beautiful Overberg Region
A good place to “get away” is usually within an hour or so of a major city. The Western Cape and more particularly the beautiful Overberg region are hugely popular, both with South Africans relocating from busy areas like Gauteng and international visitors, whether they are retirees or second home owners.
The Overberg certainly fits the description of an ideal location. Its commercial center, Hermanus, and its surroundings, such as Hemel in the Aarde Valley, are between 60 and 90 minutes by car from Cape Town, which is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
The property slowdown experienced in many parts of the country does not seem evident in the beautiful Overberg, where housing and apartment construction remains dynamic in the towns of Hermanus, Sandbaai, Onrus, Fisherhaven and elsewhere on the R43, which is the main road from the city of Cape Town.
To meet buyer demand for more seclusion and a tranquil setting, private lifestyle properties, both large and small, have sprung up in recent years.
Small private properties are generally limited in terms of the number of homes that can be built, and therefore an investor simply purchases a share in the corporation that owns the property. In this case, he selects his own construction site and is free to design and build his own house. Holdings in such an arrangement are typically five or six shareholders at most, with each individual being the sole owner of their own home (whether for personal use or investment as a vacation rental). This is the most exclusive and desirable investment you can find because the value of the property can only increase over the years. Unfortunately, these opportunities are rare.
As a senior executive currently living in Cape Town and nearing retirement, I have been searching for my own perfect lifestyle retreat in a rural setting. I’m sick of the city.
My research has taken me through many potential settings and locations. The Overberg area was a given as my wife and I spent many happy holidays there and we both love Hermanus.
We know what we want. We want seclusion, but with quick easy access to the conveniences of the city and our friends. We want stunning views, a natural rural environment and security. We want a certain standard of neighbor, that’s really important. My wife likes to go shopping and I like to play a round of golf from time to time. We both love long walks with our dogs and from time to time we like to go canoeing. We definitely want the ocean to be in our sight.
During our search, several properties met our basic criteria, so we developed a short list.
These were (in no particular order):
Benguela Cove (wine estate) next to Fisherhaven,
Arabella Country Estate (golf estate) on the shores of the Boriver Lagoon,
Agulhas Nature Reserve (400HA Nature Reserve) near Cape Agulhas,
Fairhill Nature Reserve (160HA private reserve with some money) near Gansbaai, and
ยท Jackals Dans (private reserve of 250 HA), overlooking the Botriver lagoon and the ocean and some small places in the Hemel valley in Aarde.
We settled on Jackals Dans which is secluded and remote and yet so close to everything we want that we couldn’t resist. It is now our weekend retreat and we use it to explore a world many people only dream of.