As it stands, you have a bit of time left to rally the troops.

On March 27, a Clifton house owned by the City of Cape Town will go under the hammer at the One & Only. The prime piece of real estate is being sold in order to help fund the City’s water projects, reports IOL.

However, a warning to all: the bids are expected to reach into the millions.

Listed by the ClareMart Auction Group, the two-bedroom property sits on the slopes of the beachfront (it’s the house with the red roof in the above image):

Stuart Diamond, mayoral committee member for assets and facilities, said the sale of the bungalow is to generate much-needed cash.

He said the monies could be used for either water projects or cross-subsidising social housing projects.

“We have taken the auction approach as this will help us get the maximum revenue out of the property being disposed of. The property is not needed anymore as we have no need to house officials or anyone else,” he said.

With an erf size of 357m², it comes with an “open-plan lounge and dining area, kitchen, a small garden area and patio with a pergola”.

Let’s take a look:

Not too shabby, although it is a bit on the small side.

When asked if the property could have been used for social-housing purposes, Diamond said:

“There is no possibility of any high density residential property development. The area is just not suitable. We have a requirement for funding at this stage as there are many water projects that need funding and with the national government cuts, it becomes even more important to generate income. We are busy looking at all our properties and if it is not needed we sell it or auction it off.”

Tony Ehrenreich, Cosatu Western Cape’s secretary, has been vocal about the Clifton bungalow sale, and argued that any City property should be utilised for integration:

“Let’s use the land to integrate people. Even if it means that two or three black families are going to be living in Clifton. City land should not be sold off, lets rather utilise it building houses in for example Khayelitsha is just as important as redistribution,” he said.

ClareMart’s general executive director, Andrew Koche, said the property is “idyllically located, but not in a good condition”. Bleak.

Guess they’ll be punting this one as a quaint fixer-upper with loads of character.

[source:iol]