Northern Drakensberg Mountain, Hoedspruit, Limpopo, South Africa

Social media tips and other ways to stay in touch with Century 21 Wildlife Properties

Have you liked our page on Facebook and noticed that you don’t see our posts in your news feed? Perhaps you assumed that we never post, but this isn’t true! We post on Facebook every day and there’s a way for you to ensure that you don’t miss out on any news, featured properties, events like show days or anything else that might be happening in and around Hoedspruit.

When you like a business page on Facebook, you automatically “follow” that page, but you need to choose what you would like to see from them. To do this, go to the page  that you are interested in and have liked. Hover your mouse over the “like button”. A box will pop us that looks like this:

Click on Notifications.

Then you will see another box that looks like this:

Click on the items that you would like to see such as videos, status updates or choose all posts so that you see all posts from our page.

Now you won’t miss a thing!

Here is a link to the Facebook page, so that you can take the necessary actions to start seeing our posts:

https://www.facebook.com/C21wildlife.properties/

Another great option that we have for visitors to our website is to subscribe to our newsletter that is sent monthly. Go to www.century21wildlife.co.za

Scroll down to this block:

Click on the block, complete the info as requested (Name, surname and e-mail address); then click “sign up” and you will receive our newsletter which shows all our latest and featured properties as well as property and other relevant news. You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time, should you wish to.

You can also subscribe to see new properties listed by us so that you don’t miss that bargain property or the home of your dreams! On our website, www.century21wildife.co.za, scroll down to this block:

Click on the block and fill in the relevant information and we will deliver e-mail alerts straight to your inbox! Convenient and easy.

Here are some of our other social media links that may be of interest to you:

http://hoedspruitproperty.blogspot.co.za/

https://www.pinterest.com/century21wild/

and https://twitter.com/C21wildlife

Raptors Lodge- Investment or Holiday home? It's up to you!

Raptors Lodge is s an established sectional title development consisting of 20, 2 bed units. The development is located in Hoedspruit and is conveniently close to town and all amenities such as restaurants, shops and doctor’s rooms. It is also only about 1 hr away from the Kruger National Park. The development offers secure lock up and go facilities. 

All units comprise two en-suite bedrooms, open plan living area with kitchen and lounge, covered parking and outdoor entertainment area with built in braai and covered patio. The development also has a communal entertainment area with pool.

Raptors lodge units offer you various options. You can choose to live in the unit full time or use it as a holiday home. You can also rent it out on a short or long term basis. It is a great investment that can earn you an income when you’re not using it. Units that are currently in a managed rental pool, achieve an 80-95% occupancy rate.

Another plus of the development is that each unit comes with a traverse onto Khaya Ndlovu, a neighbouring Big 4 reserve. There is no buffalo on the reserve. Khaya Ndlovu is a unique game reserve with only 35 residential stands. The Big 4 Game Reserve forms part of the 15,000 hectare Blue Canyon Conservancy. The Conservancy carriers Lion, Elephant, White Rhino, Leopard, Wild Dog, and Plains Game. There are a limited number of traverses to the reserve which keeps it quite private and affords traverse owners the opportunity for quiet game drives and great game sightings. The levy for the traverse is around R350 per month.

There is an additional levy on each unit of around R1700 per month. This is used by the body corporate to maintain the outside of the units including the thatch and painting of the units.

We currently have 3 units for sale.

This unit is the cheapest Raptors Lodge unit on the market at present, but it is sold unfurnished and needs some work.

This unit is sold fully furnished. It is currently part of a managed rental pool.

This unit is in good condition and well looked after. It is also sold furnished. It is also part of a managed rental pool. A big plus of this unit is that it features separate toilets which only a handful of units have.

For more information or to arrange a viewing, contact Michelle or Delaine. We would love to show you around!

BUYING PROPERTY IN HOEDSPRUIT

Are you looking for a home in the bush?

Hoedpruit is surrounded by several Private Game Reserves, and as such has some of the best game viewing in South Africa. This picturesque little town is situated at the foot of the Klein Drakensberg Mountains in the Limpopo province, and offers some of the most sought-after, prime wildlife real estate in the country; combined with a unique Lifestyle of African bush and modern conveniences.

Hoedspruit boasts many different lifestyle facilities such as shops, banks, restaurants, schools and medical facilities; as well as many interesting places of interest.  It is home to the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre, Maholoholo Wildlife Rehabilitation center, the ‘Stop Rhino poaching’ project, the magnificent Blyde River Canyon, White lion breeding project, Kapama, Timbavati, Balloon Safaris, Elephant back Safaris, bush and nature trails, to name a few;  and is only 90 km away from the Kruger National Park. The weather is great, and the best time to visit is ‘Anytime,’ thanks to the sub-tropical climate and mild winters.

Tourism has been a major contributor to the local economy because of its close proximity to Kruger National Park, and while the town has grown remarkably, it has still maintained its rustic charm which has attracted residents and visitors to the area;  resulting in Hoedspruit becoming a premier destination for eco-tourism, as well as for the volunteer tourist. One of the charming qualities of life in Hoedspruit is the regular sighting of tourists travelling in and around the town in an open safari vehicle, going about their business, or arriving back from an exciting Big 5 game drive.

Buying property in Hoedspruit is a fantastic investment, both as a primary home, or as a secondary/holiday home.  Rental returns are good, and records reveal that although property prices took a dip in 2008, they picked up again in 2009, and continued to grow steadily each year until 2011, where the average price of a home in the area reached a record high of R 825 000.

It is interesting to note that the trend from 2010 to 2012 was that nearly half of the buyers were between the ages of 18 and 35 years old, while 50 percent of sellers were aged between 50 and 64 years old.  What this shows is that the demand for the lifestyle and the area is on the ‘up,’ and has contributed towards an actively functioning sales market; which for the long term investor, means an opportunity for excellent returns.

To view our latest properties for sale and other info about the area, click here, or contact us.

Zuma’s comments with regards to property at the State of the Nation 2015

Don’t Panic

Here is something to think about with regards to land ownership by foreigners as muted by President Zuma at SONA2015:

Learned and legal minds have been writing about this for some time now in South Africa and I thought I’d share some of their thoughts concerning this.

·         No reversals are possible – the administrative and logistics, costs and legal ramifications makes it impossible to reverse any transactions already done with foreigners. Property ownership is held in personal names, companies, trusts, partnerships, shareholdings etc and just to do deed searches on all these and then to determine/define whether the owner of the property is strictly a foreigner (without permanent residence, work permits, business interests in the country or a majority shareholder in the property owning company) and then after this to force reversal of ownership is a task that is simply impossible.

·         There is no law promulgated and adopted yet so deals can still occur for foreigners – to enact some type of law in this regard will probably take many, many years to achieve (if ever) and between now and then (if ever) the above would apply.

·         Belief is that if ever a law like this is passed, it would be constrained to agricultural land only or agricultural land up to a certain size but even then, the above two points still apply. Sectional titles, residential properties and commercial properties in all likelihood would be excluded. For commercial properties, this is no more apparent than the R 80 billion Chinese development in Johannesburg (labelled the 2^nd Sandton), where construction has already began with the approval of government just recently – again the point that this can never be reversed.

·         In many countries around the world and including western countries, foreigners are also not allowed to own land unless they become citizens as well so it’s not that “whacked”. In fact in Europe now, many countries offer foreigners automatic citizenship if they acquire property or establish businesses there. The same could happen here to attract investors and in fact was said as such by the president this morning. He implied that foreigners are welcome to buy here but they must also invest in businesses at the same time or become citizens and invest in businesses and not just own property to be used for vacations once a year and not add value – mmmm? you can debate this for yourself

·         As muted, if no ownership is given then long leases will be given to foreigners – again nothing new here and it happens all over the world and including western countries (99 year leases up to 999 year leases). These leases can be mortgaged by banks, are tradable, renewable in perpetuity, are transferrable to surviving spouses upon death and can be used as collateral (jokingly though, do we as humans ever own a property? – we merely exclusively occupy properties while we are alive and the properties will always still be there even after many generations have come and gone)

Look, the bottom line is, there has to be some form of land ownership correction in South Africa and we must all accept that. Most commentators though believe that political rhetoric is the order of the day with this current government in order to appease the majority but at the end of the day concessions will be made mainly for agricultural and rural land reform.

 Sure this form of rhetoric does not help the situation so we must just manage it until all is made clear.

Managing it means; continue as normal as nothing has legally changed and if sentiment is a problem right now, perhaps the above will help you communicate this to your foreign clients.

My take to clients would be: BUY NOW before the law changes!!

For properties we have available right now, go to our website!

Wild Dogs den in Zandspruit Bush and Aero Estate

A few weeks ago, Rob Severin experienced an incredible Wild Dog sighting in Raptors View Wildlife Estate. Seeing the dogs is always an exciting experience for us and it’s always special.

We were thrilled that there was a pack in the area and even more excited when we learned that they were denning on Zandspruit Bush and Aero Estate. People underestimate the value of Wildlife Estates like Raptors View, Zandspruit andHoedspruit Wildlife Estate. These estates are fenced off but Wild Dogs have little respect for fences and will find a way into the estates quite easily. These estates offer the Wild Dogs a safe haven. There is plenty of plains game to sustain them with no predators to threaten them. They actually benefit the reserves by managing the plains game population.

This particular pack has been seen in the Greater Hoedspruit area since 2010. Their movements have been monitored by Grant Beverley of the Endangered Wildlife Trust as Wild Dogs are South Africa’s most endangered carnivore.

Wild Dog numbers are decreasing fast. In 1994 the Kruger National Park had 435 Wild Dogs but today there are only just over 200 animals left. The total South African population is less than 450 with only between 5000 and 6000 dogs left in the world!

Wild Dogs have a large home range of about 450 square kilometres. This is one of the problems that the Dogs face as they often cross roads, making them vulnerable.

This pack has been through a lot over the last 18 months. There were 16 of them originally, but 8 were reportedly shot by a local farmer. Four of them were darted and moved to a protected area nearby and one of the males was fitted with a GPS collar to be able to monitor their movements better and hopefully protect the remaining individuals.

“Unfortunately people view Wild Dogs as predators, and are afraid of them, however there is not a single report of free roaming Wild Dogs ever attacking humans. Impala make up 90% of Wild Dog’s prey”, says Grant. “This pack is the only resident, free roaming pack in the Lowveld outside SANParks”, he continues.

By buying in a wildlife estate, you are in effect, helping to protect the Wild Dog population. We are privileged to live in an area where we can still see Wild Dogs and enjoy them in their natural habitat.

Please be on the lookout for the pack and if you are lucky enough to see them, you can send photos or any details of your sighting to grantb@ewt.org.za

If you'd like more information about property in the Wildlife Estates in Hoedspruit, please contact us or go to our website.

Winter versus Summer in the Bush

"To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with Spring." George Santayana.

As time passes and we move into Winter, the bush changes all around us. Mornings are chilly and we add a blanket to our beds at night. The trees have lost their leaves and the landscape has turned from a beautiful green to brown. The roads are dusty and you can't seem to keep your car clean!

It is the quiet season. Properties look bare and are more difficult to sell. Our pretty town isn't showing it's best side!

Here are some photos showing the difference between Summer and Winter. The contrast is amazing and something to bear in mind when considering buying a property in Hoedspruit in Winter!

For a selection of properties for sale, check out our website, or contact Rob Severin. We'd love to introduce you to the beautiful town of Hoedspruit.