Gavin Roelofsz was out cycling with his teenage daughter on the East Rand when they decided to try a new route, so they took a detour through a somewhat derelict piece of vacant land. It was pretty run-down, overgrown, littered and strewn with rubble – and worse.
But, if you could see through the neglect – and Gavin could – it was beautiful.
There was a huge lake and lots of open space. Gavin, who had no experience in property development, took one look at it and realised it was a great development opportunity. But he didn’t have nearly enough money to invest in a project of this magnitude.
So he went out looking for investors.
“Ebotse was my vision,” Gavin says. “I wanted to see a community living in a safe, beautiful place one day, and the reality is beyond my wildest hopes.”
It took a while and a few wrong turns, but by 2002, Victor Peterson (an architect) Andrew Schwegmann, Gary Roberts, Simon Edwards and Vince Cockbain had all invested in the initial development phase of the estate from 2002 to 2008.
“I became involved in the Ebotse development as a sleeping partner in 2003,” Vince Cockbain says. Needless to say, the sleeping part didn’t last. In 2005 he established the homeowners’ association, and by 2008 he was totally involved in the day-to-day management of the development company.
It took a huge amount of work, but they were ready to transfer the first plots in 2005 – Most of these stands had been pre sold at a launch in late 2003. . From the outset they had determined that they would try as far as possible to sell to people who actually intended to live there, rather than to speculators, as they were hoping to create a stable community.
Keeping it relatively contained, they offered the first phase to people in their direct network. At that stage, an expensive price for a plot in Benoni was about R 200 000. As the first plots they sold included waterfront properties, which were marketed at an unprecedented R 580 000 for a plot of about 900m2. This decidedly optimistic price strategy was a bold move, as they risked pricing themselves out of the market, but it paid off. They had an amazing turnout, and the first phase sold out in one day. Today waterfront stands have fetched prices of R 3million.
And then 2008 dawned, and the economy tanked. It was a tough time for developers During 2008 Sias de Kerk joined the business bringing with him experience in developing sectional title units. Instead of backing off the developers invested heavily in the estate by building 170 sectional title units from 2009 to 2012 during a very tough economic cycle. Construction costs were reduced as builders were hungry for work in a very tough market. This developer driven investment supported a huge groundswell of investor confidence. “People saw we believed in our product and were willing to put vast amounts of money in the ground” say's Vince Cockbain. “We literally built our way out of the difficult market we had to deal with. We will always be grateful to the Ebotse home owners who joined us in investing in their homes during these tough years”
Vince moved on to the estate in 2012. “We have four children, and living on the estate has exceeded our expectations,” he says. “We feel very fortunate to live in this lovely community.” Gavin and Vince have developed genuine relationships with people on the estate – both social and business. On the business side, a number of existing residents have invested in future phases, specifically the latest offering, The Links. And because the developers Gavin and Vince are on site, they can respond rapidly to any opportunity for improvement.
The way they kept to their delivery promises throughout the 2008 recession, their attention to detail, their on-the-spot involvement in the estate, and their continuously adding value to the property enhanced their reputation, fostered investor confidence, and created a good return on investment for property owners.
Yes, luck was part of it: the development of Ebotse coincided with the upgrading of OR Tambo International and the initiative to develop the Ekurhuleni Aerotropolis, but Gavin and Vince can still take credit for improving the profile of the East Rand, and helping raise property values in suburbs bordering Ebotse.
To date R 1.5 billion worth of property has been sold on Ebotse.
"It’s so much more than a successful development project – it’s the culmination of a dream" Gavin says.
The new Links Apartment development which is a unique project on the East of Johannesburg, has drawn new investors to this development which will result in over R 500 million being invested into the estate. Once the Links Apartments are completed the Ebotse estate will accommodate 811 families altogether.
The Links Apartments is a another “visionary” step in the life of the Ebotse Golf and Country Estate.
