Fall of the house(s) of Caprice: The former model reveals how her property assets have slumped by hundreds of thousands of pounds
If all this sounds bad, her investment in Johannesburg has fared even worse. In early 2006 Caprice decided to buy a house in South Africa because she was launching her lingerie range there.
Spurning Cape Town, she chose a wealthy suburb in Johannesburg, imagining that retail links would be easier to forge from a major business centre. She bought a four-bedroom house with one acre in the suburb of Bryanston for a bargain £300,000 and spent about £400,000 doubling its size.
The home now boasts a huge master bedroom with two fireplaces, its own private lounge and separate dressing area, a triple garage and a luxurious entertainment area featuring a bar, pool tables and dance floor. It is on the market for 5.3 million rand ( £373,000).
Caprice had expected her business to do well in South Africa - she is a fairly well known face there from her modelling days - so she bought the house purely for her own use as a base.
Caprice Bourret's home in Bryanston, Johannesburg
Since she wasn't planning on letting it she didn't take out a mortgage and paid cash instead, so it's entirely her own capital she is losing.
The rand stood at 9.5p at the start of 2006, but between April and September that year it lost 25 per cent to around 7p, where it still stands today, so even if her property had retained its original value
Caprice would have lost nearly £250,000 through the currency fluctuation alone. Factor in a 20- 25 per cent slump in house prices and the value of her investment has nearly halved.
'I know it's a bad idea to sell at the bottom of the market,' she says with a moan. ' But I am pulling my business out of South Africa and I have no more need of that house.
'I could hold on to it, but in my opinion it's going to take years before the market recovers and renting it in the meantime is a risk - and there's a much higher chance in South Africa that tenants may trash it. It seems best just to swallow my pride and cut my losses.'
6 comments:
Well if you read the whole article, it seems like the only winner she has at the moment is cape town.
There is one small strand of a silver lining in the heavy cloud hanging over Caprice. She and John Hitchcox bought a seaside holiday home in Cape Town for £1.1 million in 2007, and even though they bought at the top of the market, the city is a popular holiday destination so they can charge high rents on short- term lets.
'I think there'll be light at the end of the tunnel by the end of this year,' says Caprice, visibly brightening.
The only winner she thinks she has... She actually hasn't tried to rent out yet.
Is it too corny to say that she's lost her shirt? Geddit? Underwear model? Shirt? Geddit?
Oi! CT Bubble? Have a look at this as it may make for a nice post here. It may not relate directly to us but you know how the saying goes: When the USA sneezes....
Anyway, here's two links which pretty much confirm that we would be utterly naive to think this isn't going to spill over into the global economy. We just tend to lag them by 6 to 18 months.
On Bloomberg: U.S. Property Owners Lost $3.3 Trillion in Home Value
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601213&sid=akmNU0mqCLtc&refer=home
Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. housing market lost $3.3 trillion in value last year and almost one in six owners with mortgages owed more than their homes were worth as the economy went into recession, Zillow.com said.
The median estimated home price declined 11.6 percent in 2008 to $192,119 and homeowners lost $1.4 trillion in value in the fourth quarter alone, the Seattle-based real estate data service said in a report today.
“It’s like a runaway train gaining momentum,” Stan Humphries, Zillow’s vice president of data and analytics, said in an interview. “It’s difficult to say when we’ll see a bottom to the housing market.”
On Zillow: Zillow Real Estate Market Reports Fourth Quarter: October-December 2008
http://www.zillow.com/reports/RealEstateMarketReports.htm
This report has a really nice map that graphically shows just how bad it is over there
Why, for the life of me, she bought in Jozi, is beyond me!!! And making changes as well (at a price!!!)
Dumb blonde!!! *takes out Whackheads CD with her on it*
Anyway, if I am going to make a loss on a property, I might as well make it in Cape Town. At least I have the ocean and mountains to sink my depression in!!!
Jozi would just be full of gunshots, screams, and noise from the MP's partying!!!
I wouldnt mind eating Caprice's berry bush !
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