PROPERTY
From page 22
buildings are not built over
possible sink-hole-prone land.
Moreover, the presence of old
graves and burial grounds will
create costs and cause delays
as relevant authorities attempt
to identify both the graves'
occupants and their surviving
next of kin, and arrange
removal of the remains for a
dignified re-interment in a
place acceptable to the
remaining families.
Old graves lead one to
ancestral claims to the land
Here are some suggestions to make your
plot more attractive for development
which will be an absolute
deal-breaker. No developer is
going to buy a piece of land,
however attractive it may
seem, if there is a Land Claim
registered over it.
And, of course, any building
that is older than 100 years
may not be demolished or
renovated in such a way that
it loses its historic character.
An example of this is to be
found in the Serengeti Golf
Estate on the East Rand where
developers came across a
100-plus-year-old farm barn
which they were required to
preserve, effectively losing
possible development space
in the process.
Finally, a developer needs to
ensure that no building takes
place within the 100-year
floodline, that is, a contour
drawn around low lying land
and rivers and streams which
the local authority deems to
be the limit of a major
flooding event that is likely to
occur within the next 100
years. Local authorities work
with other floodlines, too, for
example 20 years and 50
years, to determine where
certain infrastructure can be
safely developed.
For all these reasons, the
developer will likely choose
land that is close to existing
infrastructure and developments. In this way, development tends to mushroom in
nodes, until all the developments merge into one
contiguous suburb and the
process starts again on land a
little further out of town.
With this in mind, what can
you as the plot owner do to
ensure that your land is as
attractive to a developer as
possible?
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If you are lucky enough to be
situated close to an existing
development, many of the
costs of providing infrastructure may be minimised for
the developer.
Where your plot is in relation
to current or future infrastructure may also dictate what a
developer can use it for. In
the local authority's long term
planning, areas will have
been set aside for commercial developments, others for
residential.
Corner plots on major
intersections, for example,
will tend to be allocated for
filling stations and shops.
If you are building a house
on an undeveloped smallholding, good advice is to
position the dwelling to one
side, or to the rear of the
plot, rather than slap-bang in
the centre. This will make it
easier to subdivide later on. If
your house is at the rear of
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