Great Estate Living
Category Residential Property News
GREAT ESTATE LIVING
Gated estate living in Kwa-Zulu-Natal provides homeowners with the freedom to capitalise on the joys of life here: the glorious weather and the extreme natural beauty of the inland and coastal landscapes. Stackable doors and shutters, glass expanses and vast covered verandas allow a secure, seamless flow between indoors and out.
Perhaps you’re relocating to Kwa-Zulu Natal, have set your sights on life in a gated estate, but need to be certain you’re choosing one with your preferred lifestyle? You’ve come to the right place.
Kwazulu-Natal has a wide range of exceptional gated estates, some well established, others newer, and still others, constantly adding new elements, new villages within the estate. From an investment perspective, Myles Wakefield, CEO Wakefields Real Estate, says, “It’s common knowledge that units or homes in gated estates have appreciated substantially in value, and continue to do so. This has much to do with the public perception about increased security, but it’s also strongly about the type of lifestyle which accompanies that sense of freedom. Most of the estates focus on creating facilities for healthier outdoor pursuits for families, whether it’s biking trails, boardwalks and bird hides, or golf courses, bowling greens and communal clubhouses for interaction between community members. You may not play golf, but you’re going to enjoy the vast green spaces which a golf course provides. Similarly with an eco estate.”
If you’ve settled on the estate living concept, you’ve no doubt either experienced it previously, or feel it ticks most or all of your Must Have boxes: increased levels of security and/or a secure environment for your family if you travel extensively, and in many cases, less concrete, more nature.
On the flipside of course, there are levies – often steep ones - and rules of conduct...all of which you know about before you sign on the dotted line. Those rules are largely there as protection for the lifestyle for which you signed up – whether it’s about no pets because of their impact on the wildlife, planting indigenous exclusively, or the colour of your exterior walls because of the broad architectural vision of the landscape. Living in an estate is signing up for membership of a particular community and lifestyle. As Wakefield says, “Do your homework. Familiarise yourself with the ethos of the estate, and understand the rules. Don’t think you’ll be the exception to the rule – those rules are applied rigidly so as to protect you, your investment and that of your neighbours. There are so many magnificent estates from which to choose, from those with sea views and nature to equestrian and golf. They promise a wonderful family lifestyle, and the concept works on so many different levels...right down to those who commute to Johannesburg from Durban. King Shaka International Airport is on the doorstep of a number of superlative estates along the north coast, and you can rest easy knowing your family is in a secure environment within a community...and you’re home in less than a couple of hours.”
Author: Anne Schauffer
