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| The undulating and dramatic scenery around Clarens in Eastern Free State, South Africa |
Clarens, in South Africa’s Eastern Free State, was founded in 1912, the same year that the Titanic sank. News of the tragedy affected even this distant location – a jutting sandstone formation on the edge of the village is called Titanic Rock. The outside world has exerted quite an influence on Clarens, which itself was named after a village on the edge of Lake Geneva, where exiled anti-British Boer war leader Paul Kruger died.
Ninety-seven years on the village is finding the attention turned back in its direction from all over the world. The village, three hours’ drive south of Johannesburg and perched on the border of the mountain kingdom of Lesotho, is gaining favour as a lifestyle choice for people who want a quieter life.
“We moved from England two and a half years ago, literally for a change of life,” says Wilbur van den Dolder, 37, who arrived in the village with his wife and young family from Lewes, East Sussex, south-east England. Van den Dolder had bought a piece of land in Clarens on a previous visit to the area, where his parents had retired. “It was supposed to be an investment but we loved it so much we said: ‘Why don’t we do the classic move abroad?’ and never moved back. The lifestyle is just lovely. The kids go to a lovely school. It’s sunny every day, pretty much.”
Seven years ago Van den Dolder bought his 4-hectare piece of land for R300,000 (£24,700), before the global boom that lifted property prices everywhere. Despite the subsequent drop, prices in Clarens remain high by South African standards. An adjacent plot the same size as Van den Dolder’s is now on sale for R1.6m. By contrast, the national average price for a large house (up to 400 sq metres) stood at R1.4m in August.
Van den Dolder, who worked for building refurbisher Hartley Quinn Wilson in Lewes, has made the most of his investment. The empty plot he bought now has a large house and two guest houses on it. He runs a business installing bespoke kitchens for people buying in Clarens and has just opened a shop in the village that sells home furnishings.
“We’ve done all that in two and a half years. We came here with no money. It’s been amazing for us. We’ve worked hard. In England I lived in a semi-detached ex-council [public housing] property, now I live in a six-bedroom house with two guest houses. I’ve got too much work, even in a recession. I’ve got no intention of moving back to England.”
He says South Africa’s biggest perceived problem – crime – does not feature in Clarens. “I haven’t seen any crime in two and a half years. Not even a street fight. I used to see them every Friday night outside the kebab shop in England.”
Van den Dolder is one of a growing number of permanent residents in a village that remains largely a refuge for people fleeing the frantic pace of Johannesburg, sub-Saharan Africa’s largest city. The “Jewel of the Free State” is also a three-hour drive from the coastal city of Durban as well as from the provincial capital, Bloemfontein. Clarens has a population of 1,000, with another 6,000 in the adjacent black township. As many as 10,000 people visit the area on busy weekends, says real estate agency Engel & Völkers.
It is 20km from the Golden Gate National Park, named for the colour of its sandstone cliffs (such as Titanic Rock) and blocks quarried from them have been used to build many local houses. The rocks feature in Bushmen paintings and the region is famed for paleontological finds including dinosaur eggs and skeletons. Unlike the rest of the Free State, with its endless flat kilometres of corn farms, in this corner of undulating and dramatic scenery outdoor pursuits such as hiking and trout fishing are popular. The vistas and colours attract artists and the centre has many galleries.
Another full-time resident is Alwyn Neeth, who moved to Clarens with his wife, Marinda, just over a year ago. The retired banker first bought a holiday home in the village four years ago before deciding to settle there permanently.
“After I was retired, sitting in Joburg, we said: ‘There’s no real point. The quality of life [in Clarens] is so much nicer,’ Neeth says. “The scenery is absolutely magnificent, it’s pretty and the air is clean. There are many artists in Clarens and a lot of art studios. My wife does art as a hobby.”
The property the couple bought last year was in Sandstone Gorge, a 43ha, 10-unit estate stocked with game such as blesbok, springbok and guinea fowl. Each unit is built on its own hectare. Neeth paid R3m for his 430 sq metre, four-bedroom house, which has an art studio and wine cellar. “It’s fairly big but not a castle,” he says.
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| Prices of properties in Clarens have held up well |
The boom has also brought problems. In a property market that increasingly caters for a top end that is limited to wealthy domestic and foreign buyers, accommodation for locals, many of whom service the growing population, has become scarce.
Gordon Jefferys, the director of estate agency Engel & Völkers’ Eastern Free State operations, bought the licence for the region last year. Previously, it was run as an offshoot of the company’s Johannesburg operations. “You have young people coming because it offers them a job. That’s also a problem, as it’s too expensive for them to actually afford to buy a property,” he says. In many cases several will club together to rent a unit. “At this stage it’s quite a challenge for somebody to come and work and to live.”
In typical estate agent’s fashion, however, he describes this as an opportunity. There is a “gap in the market”, he says, to build smaller units and rent them out to workers.
There are other tensions, too. Gregg Mousley is a fifth-generation farmer in Clarens involved with the Clarens Conservancy, a farmer-initiated group that protects the natural flora and fauna. The rapid boom has brought newcomers such as retirees who offer their business skills and time to benefit the wider community but others do not contribute anything, he says. “I know fewer people here now than I ever have in my life,” Mousley says.
The village also has its limitations. To protect its character, local bylaws prevent chain stores from setting up and there are few other facilities. Neeth says there are good medical services in the nearby larger town of Bethlehem but says living in Clarens might not be practical in old age.
“If my health declines to a point that I need to be in retirement village, it’s certainly not an option. Should we reach a point where it’s not feasible to live on our own, we would relocate to Johannesburg,” Neeth says.
But the inward flow is going to continue. Elmine Middlewick, who lives in Benoni, a town on Johannesburg’s industrial East Rand, is the principal of a private school and her husband is the financial director of a steel company. Within the next five years, she says, they will move to the house in Clarens they bought late in 2007. One attraction for her husband was the prospect of trout fishing but she says he feels let down.
“They punt it but it’s not a big thing. There are a couple of places where there are dams but it’s more river fishing. It’s not as big a trout area as Dullstroom [a town in Mpumalanga, two hours east of Johannesburg]. My husband was quite disappointed from that point of view. We walk an enormous amount. We cycle and [my husband] is quite keen to do a bit of farming.”
It took the Middlewicks a long time to buy their two-bedroom house on the edge of the village. It was originally priced out of their range at R2.1m but with the fall in the market and urgency on the seller’s part, it dropped to R1.6m. In common with all buyers in Clarens, Middlewick says the simplicity of life and opportunity to get out of the rat race attracted her and her husband. Middlewick, who has two children overseas, also thinks her offspring will be more likely to visit their parents if they live in Clarens rather than Benoni.
“That was also one thought. Coming back ... they don’t want to be in our townhouse in suburbia. It’s much nicer for them when they come to visit.”
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Estate agencies
Engel & Völkers, tel: +27 (0)861364353; www.engelvoelkers.co.za/clarens
Pam Golding Real Estate, tel: +27 (0)582561156; www.pamgolding.co.za
