Steemit Engagement Challenge S5-W2|My Home Sweet Home: Beach house

“Home sweet home”
^{20 October 2022}

Many South Africans dream about uttering these sweet words.

Despite the impact of COVID-19 on the economy, the rise of inflation and interest rates, and the high general living costs buying property in South Africa continues to be a valuable and safe investment.

The property industry has seen a huge spike in the price of coastal properties. According to the estate agent, Tish McDavid from Tyson Properties in Ballito semigration is mainly because of employees who are allowed to work remotely from home and now leave the bigger metros for safety reasons.

According to her, the prices of properties in Ballito are highly overpriced. A neat 3-bedroom apartment in an Estate will cost an estimated R3,500,000.00 (860 391,45 STEEM). If you want an apartment with a sea view you can add another R1,000,00.00 (245 826,12 STEEM) to the price.

Hot News Community asked @patjewell who recently bought a property in Ballito a few questions.

Q: When did you buy your Ballito property?
A: Oh gosh! A week ago and then also the reason why the excitement is high.

Q: Is there a specific reason why you bought a property instead of renting?
A: We wanted a place that we could call “home”. Furthermore to rent a property in Ballito is very expensive. The two most expensive things in the area are rental and education. Renting a house can cost anything from R20,000.00 to R30,000.00 (4 916,52 to 7 374,78 STEEM)per month. It is silly to help someone else pay their bond if you can pay your own.

With a rental property, you are also very restricted and you cannot make any changes to it.
We want to build, we want to change the property to our liking, and we want to do it to our property.

According to me now is the perfect time to buy in Ballito. In a few years’ time you might just be sorry that you didn’t.

Q: What type of property did you buy?
A: We bought a free-standing family house. We had three criteria for purchasing a house, a big garden, a property outside an Estate, and a property with a sea view.

We wanted a big garden so that we can bring our dogs from Johannesburg. My stepson cannot wait to take them for a run on the beach.

Estate living is not for us as there are so many rules and regulations. Besides many of them don’t allow you to park a boat on your property. My husband will not make it if he cannot go fishing.

The sea view was our biggest obstacle as these property doesn’t come onto the market very easily and when they do, they are very expensive.

Q: What does your new house consist of?
A: The property consists of two parts. The family home has 2 bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms, a 3rd and 4th bedroom which share one bathroom, a large lounge, a dining room, a large kitchen, and a deck for entertainment and sea viewing. The second part is a flatlet with its own entry, lounge, kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom. Best of all it came fully furnished.

The property also has a huge beautiful garden, 6 parking bays, and two separate “braai” (barbeque) areas for entertainment.

It is exactly the type of home we were looking for. A home that we can enjoy now and also when we retire one day.

Q: What is unique about your new home?
A: The name of the street it is located in is “Ocean Drive”. I’m sure that tells you how close we are to the ocean. The nearest beach for swimming is only 100 meters from the gate.

What is also nice is the flatlet which we will rent out as a self-catering unit. This will allow us to receive an income that will enable us to make improvements like building a garage.

The rental income during peak seasons is currently R3,000 (740,20 STEEM) per day.

What I also like is that I can use the one bedroom as a study. My little private “She Shed”.

Q: Which is your favorite part of the house?
A: Right now I think it will be the main bedroom as it has a wooden balcony and big sliding doors overlooking the greens of the valley. I can just picture us sitting on the balcony enjoying our morning coffee and tea.

Q: Where do you think you are going to spend most of your time when at home?
A: It is a bit difficult to tell at this stage but I do think the entertainment area overlooking the ocean will be the place where we hang out most of the time. Oh yah, also my She Den. After all, I do spend most of my time behind my computer.

Q: With a free-standing property there is a lot of maintenance and the cost thereof can be huge. What do you anticipate will be your biggest cost?
A: Rust! Being so close to the ocean might have its pros but it will for sure also have its cons. One of them will be rust. We will have to wash, paint and grease regularly.

At this stage, the men are very keen on doing the garden but I won’t be surprised if we will have to call on a garden service to maintain the garden for us once a week.

Q: Do you think that in ten years’ time the property would have kept its value?
A: For sure! I’ve been in the property industry for many years. Real Estate agencies used our software to list and manage their properties. You cannot go wrong if you buy in the right location which I truly believe we did.

This will be the last move in our lives therefore, we had to choose wisely. It is our investment for life.

Q: When will you be able to call this new property “Home sweet home”?
A: That will be on 16 January 2023 as per our agreement with the existing owners. As they are immigrating to Germany they asked us if they could stay on until they start their new venture.

I cannot wait to turn that key in the door, opening the door and shout “Home sweet home!”

One of the biggest property events is to be held on 28 October 2022 in Johannesburg by The Real Estate Industry Summit (REIS).

It will be interesting to see if the property gurus will be supporting @patjewell’s enthusiasm about the property industry and their new home.

I invite: @mile16 @sahmie @bossj23

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