Estate Living Magazine Invest SA - Issue 45 September 2019 | Page 28

P R O P E R T Y
&
I N V E S T M E N T
MANAGING MARINA
MARTINIQUE
FOR ITS COMMUNITY
Which processes, procedures, and best practices keep a successful older estate at the top of its game?
Marina Martinique – a unique Cape-Caribbean-style estate consisting of 384 residential stands and 475 units in group housing
developments – is built around a lake and seven kilometres of constructed canals that lie three metres above sea level, and
whose water is pumped in from, and flows back into, the ocean.
Community
Given its beachside position bordering the resort town of Jeffreys Bay,
and its age (construction on the first phase having started in 1990, and
on the second in late 2003), the estate is both a home for permanent
residents and a playground for holidaymakers from elsewhere. Johan said that the large number of group housing units presents
the biggest problem when it comes to short-term lets, which are
managed by individual owners, and marketed through platforms like
Airbnb and booking.com.
These factors – and the usual considerations like the maintenance
and provision of security and bulk services, and the requirements for
sound financial management – present the homeowners association
with an unusual set of challenges that demand unusual solutions.
Marina Martinique’s HOA is a Section 21 company that owns the
entire infrastructure of the estate, including the roads and the canals. ‘Holding the owners accountable seems to be the best solution, but
the diversity of people who live here, and who visit the estate, brings
with it its own set of problems: in particular, how do you communicate
with everybody in a way that makes sense to each of them?’
‘We really have two major issues at the moment,’ said Johan Strydom,
a semi-retired international management consultant who works from
his home in the Marina, and who is currently the vice-chair of the HOA.
‘The first concerns the behaviour of short-term tenants who ignore the
rules, for example, when it’s permissible to make a noise, how fast you
can drive a boat on the canals or the lake, and so on. And the second is
how do we build a community in an estate that caters for everybody?’
Short-term solutions include the use of formal messaging services like
SMS and email, as well as more informal platforms like two different
WhatsApp groups – one for general, social communication (special
offers at the Marina Wharf restaurant, an invitation to an event that’s
open to all, items for sale, etc.), and one for the serious issues of
estate information (water management, electricity shut-downs, refuse
collection, and so on).
But, said Johan, the longer-term, more permanent solution will happen
– and has begun to happen – organically. It will become embedded