Gary Player sells horse stud farm

Johannesburg - Golfing

legend Gary Player is testing South Africa’s prime property market by selling

the farm where he spent more than half his life nurturing his other

passion of breeding racehorses.

The 81-year-old

is asking R50 million ($3.7 million) for the 1 431-hectare (3 540-acre) ranch

in the Karoo, a semi-desert landscape almost midway between Johannesburg

and Cape Town. Player plans to wind down after a career spanning five decades,

165 tournament victories, including nine Major Championships, and the

registered trademark as the world’s most travelled athlete.

“We’d like to

downsize because this is quite a big farm,” Player said by phone. “I don’t

think I’ll retire until I’m 90 at least. But we’ve started to prepare.”

Player’s

property is coming to market as top-end house prices in South Africa buck a

slump, helped by a weak rand that has spurred demand from overseas buyers. For

the rest, home values are shrinking, hurt by an economy expanding at the

slowest pace since the 2009 recession, rising unemployment and turmoil on

the political front, in which President Jacob Zuma is fighting to retain power

after being implicated in a series of scandals.

“Wealthy people

from countries such as Angola, Ghana and Nigeria are increasingly buying

homes in South Africa,” said  Andrew Amoils, head of research at

New World Wealth, a consultancy based in Johannesburg. “Even the local number

of high-net worth individuals increased 5 percent this year,” he said,

referring to people who have more than $1 million in liquid financial assets.

Property headwinds

Prices for real

estate going for more than R20 million rose 4 percent in the first nine months

after being adjusted for inflation, he said. The consumer price index averaged

6.2 percent through September.

Existing homes

sold for between R4.4 million and R16.3 million fell by 1 percent in value

after inflation this year, according to data compiled by Barclays Africa Group.

The price of a so-called affordable home of less than R600 000 dropped 2.1

percent, while the middle-segment declined 1.2 percent, said Jacques du Toit, a

real estate analyst at Barclays Africa Group in Johannesburg.

“South Africa’s

high-end property market continues to sell properties at a good pace and is

largely unaffected by political and economic headwinds,” he said. Overall house

prices are set to fall 1.6 percent this year, the first contraction since 2012,

and another 1.7 percent in 2017, he said.

The farm has

attracted a “huge response” from foreigners and locals since going to market in

mid-November, said Rory O’Hagan, the chief executive officer of Chas

Everitt International Property Group’s luxury-portfolio division. 

Bang for buck

“Property in

South Africa is offering excellent value,” he said. “You get incredible

bang for your buck.”

Read also:  View: The most costly homes available

Player’s ranch

is among several luxury properties on offer from the Johannesburg-based

realtor. A 243-hectare family owned farm in Stellenbosch, which makes wine and

offers views of Cape Town’s Table Mountain, is listed for R115 million. A home

inside an equestrian estate between Johannesburg and Pretoria with

a Japanese teppanyaki bar and alfresco amphitheater is going for R85

million.

Britain’s exit

from the European Union, the election of Donald Trump as US president,

recessions in Russia and Brazil and political unrest in Turkey mean that

investing in a trophy property in South Africa doesn’t “sound that bad” to potential

investors, O’Hagan said. And while the rand has gained 14 percent against the

dollar in 2016, the currency has weakened each of the previous five years,

losing 57 percent of its value.

Broadway flyer

There is a

shortage of stock at the top-end of South Africa’s real estate market and homes

priced at between R18 million and R35 million, said Denise Dogon, the owner of

Dogon Group Properties Group, which is also marketing Player’s farm. Her

company, which has sold properties to African heads of state, this year got a

record 290 million rand for a house in Cape Town.

For Player,

moving to Plettenberg Bay on the southern coast will be a big change from the

farm in Colesberg he bought in 1974. Known as Rietfontein, the ranch has

produced more than 2,000 winners. It’s most notable result was Broadway Flyer,

which in 1994 finished second in the St Leger Stakes, the oldest and longest of

Britain’s classic races.

The property

includes an enclosed horse track, chapel and three-bedroom guest house.

Read also:  Got R65m? Buy this and move in!

“Other than my

parents dying or some of my family members, it will be the saddest moment in my

life to sell this farm,” Player said. “It’s a paradise.”

Player has been

interested in horses since childhood. He would ride on a friend’s farm on

weekends while his father worked in a gold mine, his brother fought overseas in

World War II and his sister attended boarding school.

“We’d come back

and wash them down and wipe the sweat off and remember the old saying, ‘the

outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man,’” he said. “I don’t know

what is more exciting, the golf or the breeding of horses.”

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