Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa Real Estate Investor Magazine - August 2017 | Page 27

A sense of security
In Africa particularly, rising levels of urbanisation and
a growing middle-class have led to an interest in and
demand for attractive lifestyle options, one of which
is the concept of housing in secure lifestyle estates.
People tend to want the security offered by these
lifestyle estates, which offer cluster-type housing and
green spaces in walled, protected environments. They
are generally centred around a feature such as a golf
estate or a reserve with wild game.
Relatively new to Africa is the lifestyle estate with
a focal point of a large body of water which can be
used for water sports like paddle boarding, sailing and
kayaking, and which offer a beach lifestyle. Many of
those making up the new middle class will find the
lifestyle benefits of these projects very appealing –
certainly more so than living in high-rise apartment
buildings with no open spaces and green areas.
The man-made lagoons aren’t just for private use,
however. A new business model was recently launched
where crystal-clear Caribbean-style lagoons will
be offered to the public as an amenity for the first
time ever. Crystal Lagoons in the USA announced
the first of these public-access lagoons when they
signed a partnership with ESJ Capital Partners, the
new owners of Jungle Island, an 18-acre landmark
attraction in Miami, Florida.
The move opens the door to exciting new
opportunities, for both existing venues and
vacant land. Public lagoons have the capability to
dramatically increase the visitor numbers for venues
such as amusement parks, aquariums and even zoos
‒ while also presenting an opportunity to generate
profit from untapped areas.
International trend
The Resort at Diamante, Cabo San Lucas in Mexico,
signed a deal with Crystal Lagoons to include an
enormous, man-made lagoon to the development.
Ken Jowdy, CEO of Legacy Properties, says of the
decision: “The Lagoon opened up a new demographic
for us. We used to be a golf-centric sales organization,
but having family amenities that attract the full
spectrum of luxury buyers, whether golfers or not, has
allowed us to market and sell to visitors that we could
not convert previously.” If recreational bodies of water
can do this for resorts, imagine the impact they could
have on residential developments.
An important issue relating to choosing a man-
made water facility is that their impact on water
resources must be limited ‒ especially in drought-
stricken countries like South Africa. We’ve seen
that sustainability has become the norm in new
developments. Simply building houses with a couple
of green features in a development isn’t enough. In
www.reimag.co.za
order to set themselves apart to potential investors
developers must meet the demand for a sustainable
lifestyle and recreational amenities that communities
can take root around.
A valuable resource
“Green” features were previously thought to be
excessively costly, but the Green Building Council
South Africa (GBCSA) recently revealed that the
green cost premium “over and above the cost of
conventional construction” is actually around 5
percent or less (even “as low as” 1.1 percent).
In their Green Building in South Africa: Guide to
Costs and Trends Report, GBCSA found that this
“apparent green premium” is the primary reason many
developments and buildings that could be going green
have not yet chosen to take the plunge.
GBCSA’s chief technical officer Manfred Braune
says green buildings in South Africa yield a higher
return on investment – “a very strong business case for
green buildings to developers, property owners and
corporates”.
Man-made lagoons can be created almost anywhere
– one does not need to be near the sea to create a
coastal area of one’s own. They can use any kind of
water including brackish from underground aquifers,
eliminating the need to consume valuable fresh water
resources. They also use just 2% of the energy required
by conventional swimming pool systems.
In addition, amenities such as these provide a
drawcard for developers who are looking for a new and
‘innovative’ feature for their project. When included
in major property developments, man-made lagoons
exponentially increase the prices of real estate projects
to figures never seen before, speeding up sales rates by
between 30% and 70%, and increase project density.
One example of such turnaround is the San Alfonso
Del Mar resort in Chile, which was originally planned
as just 400 residential units but later increased to
1400 units owing to increased demand created by the
addition of a Crystal Lagoon. The eight-hecta