Ballito’s new billion plus bonanza – including mansions, retirement, residential, sporting, retail and commercial offerings – is set to take the KZN North Coast to a whole new level.
Pictures: Jon Ivins
Twenty years ago Zimbali Coastal Resort put KwaZulu-Natal on the global property map when Kuwaiti-owned IFA Hotels and Resorts sunk R1,6-billion into what was then dubbed the biggest foreign direct investment into KZN.
The luxury gated estate sprawling down the hill to the sea turned Ballito into a boom town and it helped enormously that King Shaka International (11km away) was completed 10 years later.
Zimbali’s Coastal Resort has 1 400 houses, is almost saturated, and does brisk sales.
When it launched the sale of key seaside plots upwards of R10-million, the story elicited gasps, but now the same properties turn hands for close to R100-million.
In 2017 IFA officially launched its next project, Zimbali Lakes Resort, which promises to cement the company’s reputation for signature, gold-standard developments.
The appetite for Zimbali Coastal Resort property and the catalytic role it played in Ballito prompted IFA to ratchet up the delivery of Zimbali Lakes, which is across the M4 and alongside the estuary. A spectacular array of developments is underway there, most of it fronting 20-hectares of lakes or built around a new 18-hole golf course with forest and sea views.
Planning and environmental approvals for all of Zimbali Lakes is in place and R402-million has already been invested in bulk infrastructure. In total 2 600 opportunities (single residences and sectional title units) will be built at Zimbali Lakes over the next 10 years, ranging from retirement units to jaw-dropping mansions.
The first houses in Lakes are almost complete and about 15 homeowners are months away from moving in. Phases one and two are situated in the northern half of Zimbali Lakes’ 300-hectare total footprint. Phase two is closest to Ballito town centre and is furthest from the sea.
The estate is pet friendly and includes a retirement village comprising 750 opportunities. This will be developed by South Africa’s largest retirement village operator Evergreen, which bought the land from IFA for R387,5-million.
Phase three – which boasts panoramic sea, lake and golf course views – was released during August 2022 and has already attracted sales in excess of R102-million.
Wayne Krambeck is the Senior Vice-president of Zimbali Operations and heads up the day-to-day development and planning.
A member of the South African Professional Golfers Association, he has been involved in the development of golf estates around the world after starting out at Fancourt in 1992. Since then he has been general manager at Pecanwood, Steenberg, Pinnacle Point and Cotswold Downs.
Krambeck was also involved in the development of Clarens Golf and Trout Estate and Wedgewood. His foreign experience includes stints in Nigeria, Seychelles and Malaysia (which included a golf club in the Borneo rainforest).
Krambeck’s development ethos is gritty and sans hyperbole. He is more of a “show, don’t tell”.
“One of the upsides to Covid was that we were able to get cracking with further approvals and infrastructure planning. When people came to buy their plots in phase one, the roads and most of the bulk infrastructure was already complete. Phase two is fully serviced already. We have 34 sites left in phase one and two (of a combined total of 212). I’d rather under promise and over deliver.”
Sites of about 1 100m² were launched at R900,000 and are now reselling at R2,6-million upwards.
Krambeck says Zimbali Lakes rests on leveraging the success of coastal. The sales team is punting four fundamentals: security; fast broadband; stable electricity and water supply.
He says the estate will get a bulk electricity rate, and through a facilities management company and in partnership with Voltano, will handle the electrical reticulation in the estate with back-up batteries, generators and a long-term plan to invest in an off-site solar farm.
Irrigation water supply is available via a seven million mega-litre dam on site, access to river water running through Zimbali Lakes. There is also the comfort of private operator SIZA Water servicing the local municipality potable water supply.
Having successfully laid the foundations for the first three phases, the team is now focusing on possibly the showiest aspect of the development dubbed Tatali. The word is Arabic for cascading water, which is what the designers hope to mimic in the development. The pièce de résistance will be recreational, commercial, retail, and luxury residential buildings that roll down the hill to the sea and Lakes.
The artist’s impressions from award-winning global firms Stefan Antoni Olmesdahl Truen Architects and Craft of Architecture, envisage partially underground roads with hanging gardens that connect a boardwalk retail waterfront complex to a hotel, a mansion precinct, and then 22 penthouses in a development atop the highest point of the estate, each with private lifts and cantilevered gardens. Tatali Sky will boast unobstructed views and prices start around R39 000/m² before finishes.
Krambeck says the mansion sites are selling for between R15-million and R30-million and the biggest, plum piece of real estate closest to the water’s edge is 1 700m², was showcased to a buyer in January. Whoever secures this prime site and can blend their tastes with a strict design aesthetic, will likely be in for well over R100-million and will own the crown jewel of the North Coast.
There are 21 mansion sites bookended by this uber site at the waterfront and one double that size at 3 000m² on the top of the hill near the penthouses.
Greg Truen from Stefan Antoni Olmesdahl Truen Architects said Tatali’s futuristic design around its oculus feature was an “eye to the sky” served by an invisible service corridor.
“The design is all about enhancing your experience. We took a mundane, functional route through a basement and turned it into an exciting journey that winds down a feature tunnel formed with opulent curves, into a vast, tall oculus, full of space, light and greenery, then on to the lower ground driveway with angled feature columns and a central crevice above that streams in an abundance of natural light.”
Krambeck says keen interest in Zimbali Lakes is down to a number of factors. These include location (schools and King Shaka International Airport) as well as the diverse offerings of the estate (commercial, sporting, residential, retirement and retail).
Long term, low risk investment and multi-generational wealth has become a serious consideration for buyers. Some people who bought in Zimbali Coastal 20 years ago are now opting to move to newer digs and in some cases are buying for their children.
The estate’s reputation and financials are also a factor. IFA has minimal debt at Zimbali and the company – listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange – has 14 mixed-use hotel and residential resort projects around the world.
Krambeck says the wider social and economic impact of Zimbali Lakes is “profound”.
“The entire site is a hive of activity. The total spend thus far is R652-million, but we project a total figure of R1,45-billion on infrastructure over the next 10 years as well as the creation of 40 000 construction jobs during the construction period.
The new 18-hole golf course has been designed and is in the process of being constructed by Golf Data and will cost R92-million. It will be playable in the last quarter of 2024.
“Tatali will probably be fully completed by 2027. We envisage that the retail and commercial precinct will comprise around three or four anchor tenants, a carefully curated selection of smaller retailers, as well as a hotel with 220 rooms. The Sports Club will be operational by the end of 2024 and the Beach Club will follow thereafter, adding significantly to the atmosphere here.
“You get a good sense of that edgy, modern vibe by walking through our mixed-use precinct, The Boulevard, situated between the Lakes and Coastal estates. Although it already has a number of built residential units, we have also planned to include a fuel station, offices, medical suites and boutique stores in the future,” said Krambeck.
“Despite the many challenges faced by KwaZulu–Natal, the development has not only survived – it has flourished. We are deeply encouraged by the robust interest shown by local and foreign investors in Tatali and Zimbali Lakes as a whole, which is a true testament of our province’s ‘kwasilient’ spirit that we too embrace. Tatali will enhance the value of investment for current and future buyers as we continue to build this vibrant, trend-setting new community in Ballito.”