This home in Upper Constantia is for sale through Anne Porter Knight Frank at R13,95 million.

On many homes built in the second half of the 20th Century a relatively small sum spent on upgrading and modernising will result in the home gaining 20% or more in value, says Lanice Steward, MD of Anne Porter Knight.

A case in point, says Steward, is an elegant double storey home in Constantia with a grey slate roof. This home in the prestigious Avenues precinct has mountain views, six bedrooms, four living rooms, a study, four garages and a swimming pool.

The listed sales price is R13,95 million, but, says Steward, R1,5 to R2 million spent on new fittings and fixtures, especially in the kitchen, could easily raise the price to about R18 million and make it eminently saleable in today’s rising market.

“A house only two plots away was sold recently for R30 million and there are others that have been on the market at R20 million plus. Most buyers, even today, would be perfectly happy with this home as it is,” she says, “and I would tend to agree with them, but it has the potential to add 20% to its value for an outlay that would probably not exceed 10% of the listed price – and there are many other grand homes of this type in the middle and upper bracket suburbs of Cape Town to which this kind of philosophy applies.”