Foreign Buyers Eye Own Strip of Africa

Business Day (Johannesburg)

June 10, 2005
Johannesburg

GAME farms are big business in SA, and are attracting an increasing number of corporate buyers. Serious interest is being shown from overseas countries such as the US.

There is a growing trend for smaller game farms to amalgamate to create more viable entities privately and at provincial government level, such as the Dinokeng Tourism project.

Dinokeng is a Blue IQ initiative of the Gauteng government to establish a premier tourist destination close to urban Gauteng. The project aims to promote economic growth, job creation and social upliftment through conserving and developing the historical, natural and cultural heritage of the area.

The project aims to enable many South Africans to experience tourism for the first time. Dinokeng has many game reserves and conservancies being linked and restocked with game to form a large Big Five game reserve.

In time it is expected the reserve will cover 100000ha, making it one of SA's biggest. Kolobe, a 140ha game farm at Boekenhoutskloof, to be sold by Auction Alliance on June 29, is part of a 1000ha farm and is within the Dinokeng-proclaimed area.

Game on the farm include giraffe, leopard, eland, zebra, antelope, wildebeest, baboons and caracal. The farm offers hiking routes, mountain biking, fishing and horse riding.

Pieter Nel of Auction Alliance says individual investors are buying up farms in this area, which encompasses Settlers, Rust de Winter and Cullinan, northeast of Tshwane.

"It's a mountainous area and has spectacular views overlooking the Magaliesberg and from vantage points the Voortrekker Monument is visible," says Nel.

"And being a comfortable drive of about one-and-a-half hours from Tshwane and Johannesburg, Kolobe is an ideal weekend retreat and a great venue for business conferences.

"Kolobe offers the opportunity for the new owners to build a conference centre, with bars and restaurants and 120 beds."

The park is owned by five people, and the new owner will buy part of the 1000ha farm. "Through the Dinokeng Project the Big Five will be reintroduced to the area. At the moment it is populated with zebra, wildebees, kudu and many more species of game.

"There is an abundance of bird life, and the large dam is stocked with black bass. The farm is surrounded by security gates and an electric fence and is therefore safe and secure," says Nel.

Rand Realty CEO Colin Sidelsky says he expects demand for game farms, especially in the bushveld areas including Groblersdal, Marble Hall and Naboomspruit farms, which are within easy reach of Tshwane and Johannesburg, to increase in the near future.

"Demand for the farms is driven by the yearning of many people to own a farm in Africa, and we have sold several in the past few years," Sidelsky says.

Already farms fetch between R1000/ha and R3000/ha and top prices are paid for farms with river frontage. But the farms must be viable, and that means a farm must be at least 1000ha in size.

As SA is a dry country, water must be available, either from rivers or streams or dams. The climate must be right: if the area is too cold, game can die in winter.

Game farms are big business now and the price for hunting is quoted in dollars.

Sidelsky says buffalo and rhino are especially lucrative. A buffalo that has been certified healthy can cost a trophy hunter R120000, and a white rhino R150000. Black rhinos are in a higher bracket, costing R250000 a head. Photographic safaris are becoming money-spinners, too.

SA is one of the few countries where game can be hunted, and SA is particularly popular with German and Austrian hunters.

Sidelsky says that infrastructure adds value, and that is important if the game farm is to be run as a business. Good accommodation, restaurants and conference centres will attract visitors and hunters.

"Game farms are becoming a venue of choice today for conferences. The bushveld especially is an ideal environment in which businessmen can meet."

Rand Realty sold three game farms in Limpopo last week. They ranged in size from 450ha to 3000ha. The smaller farm fetched R2,9m and the larger farms sold for R5m each. The deals are being finalised.

"The prices were not exceptional, but they reflected fair market value. The prices have not yet jumped, but they have increased steadily in recent time," Sidelsky says.

"Demand remains strong and we received more than 200 inquiries for these farms.

"There are private buyers who are mainly looking for a weekend retreat, and there are corporate buyers and syndicates who are buying the farms to be run as a business," Sidelsky says.