Anyone who has ever prowled the corridors of Tinder knows that trusting those carefully selected pictures is fraught with danger. Sure you did look like that ten years ago, but unfortunately I’m on a date with the you from the present.

You would expect massive property deals, worth in the hundreds of millions of rands, wouldn’t be taking chances by using outdated pictures to sell massive tracts of prime real estate. You would, however, be wrong about that.

A 46-hectare stretch of coastal property in Hermanus is causing quite the stir and the potential sale has enraged some locals, 30 000 of which say they should receive a cut of the deal. Here’s TimesLive:

Not only do the residents of Zwelihle township claim the land, known as Schulphoek, as their own, they say it is their only access to the sea.

Now a new dispute has flared up over an aerial photograph used to market the land, which appears to have been taken 18 years ago.

The outdated picture has been criticised by community leaders as false advertising after it was sent out as part of a media package this week. The sales representative for the company selling the property, Aubrey Miller, denied claims that they were misleading potential buyers:

[He] said “244 plots would need to be serviced and 244 homes would be built – how much employment is that going to create?”

He denied that there was an “ulterior motive” behind the use of an old photograph…[and] denied that there was controversy about the community’s access to the sea: “That whole coastline is not really swimmable. I would not allow my children to swim there”.

I think everyone could do with a listen to some experts in the property field, our friends over at Pam Golding. They’ve filled us in on tips for prospective home buyers and will be appearing certain Saturday mornings from 10AM until 12AM on ‘The Abstract Aimee Show’, helping us navigate the waters of the property business.

Good luck Hermanus, it looks like things might get messy.

[source:timeslive]