Estate Living Magazine Retirement Living - Issue 40 April 2019 | Page 32

P R O P E R T Y
&
I N V E S T M E N T
Family Jaga
First choice
When the development was first mooted back in 2010, Ravi
and Deepa Jaga were among the first people to sign up. But the
Rondebosch Oval is a unique development on an iconic property
with a long history, and bucket-loads of emotional associations with
generations of cricket-playing and cricket-loving Capetonians,
so it took – literally – years for the developers to negotiate all the
necessary hurdles before the first spade could be turned.
guinea pigs – in terms of the contracting and many other aspects.
Let’s just say that we may have proposed a few changes!
‘Rawson encouraged us to be as involved in the project as possible,’
Deepa says. ‘We were on site nearly every day, checking that things
were going as planned and, occasionally, making the odd change
on the fly.’ Both Ravi and Deepa emphasised how incredibly helpful
and accommodating Rawson were to their every requirement.
‘We almost gave up several times,’ Ravi admits, ‘but there’s nothing
quite like this anywhere in the Southern Suburbs, especially in the
Rondebosch area. The safe, relaxed and neighbourly lifestyle the
estate offers is growing on us second to none, and we are loving it.’ They have a great view of the Oval, so they’ll have ‘grandstand’ seats
when matches start there later this year – through the temporary
nets that will be erected to protect the houses (and residents) from
errant sixes.
The original plan was to develop a high-density estate with some
townhouses and a few apartment blocks with – ultimately – about
250 apartments and homes. But, after a number of redesigns, it
was reduced to a mere 41 homes, all clustered around the cricket
ground. In one sense, the delays were a blessing in disguise
(except the price increases of course!), Ravi says, as it is a much
more spacious and appealing development now than the original
concept envisaged. When they originally put their names down for the estate, their
twins, Diya and Rish, were toddlers, but now they are active, fun-
‘We were lucky enough to have one of the first choices when we
were choosing our home in the estate,’ Deepa says. ‘We chose a
corner plot right on the Oval, which luckily afforded us some extra
outdoor living space, looking out onto some lovely trees and the
mountains – it all suddenly became real.’ But even then, as building
goes, it wasn’t all plain sailing. Ravi says laughingly, ‘we were the
Outdoor entertainment and putting green