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PICS: Val de Vie unveils luxury retirement village

Paarl - The luxury security estate Val de Vie near Paarl in the Cape Winelands launched its latest development on Tuesday.

Val de Vie Evergeen is a retirement lifestyle development.

It will consist of 400 homes, 200 apartments or assisted living suites, with 80 frail care centre beds being available.

Prices are set to vary from R2.85m to R3.99m.

The development will include a club house, library, multi-purpose function centre, gardens, a hair salon, gym and occupational therapy room.

It will also have a games room, cinema room, lounge and dining area, and a bistro.

Ryk Neethling, marketing director at Val de Vie, told Fin24 the launch of Val de Vie Evergreen completes one more piece of the puzzle at the luxury security estate, namely a retirement component. It is being developed in conjunction with Evergreen Lifestyle.

At the launch (from left) Nico de Waal (PSG Alpha), Jannie Mouton (PSG), Martin Venter (Val de Vie founder), Arthur Case (Evergreen), Johan van der Merwe (ARC), James Wilson (Amdec) and Ryk Neethling (Val de Vie). (Supplied)

PSG Alpha Investments, a subsidiary of PSG Group, recently acquired a 50% stake in property developer Amdec Group's Evergreen Lifestyle division, a provider of retirement living nationwide. The investment was by means of a R675m subscription for new shares. It is one of the largest initial cash investments by the group to date.

The site to be developed

James Wilson, CEO of the Amdec Group, told Fin24 at the launch that, although Val de Vie Evergreen is set in an affluent environment, one cannot ignore the reality of poverty in the country.

"One can only do the best to assist society to become more equal. Real estate development in affluent markets leads to massive employment opportunities during construction - both semi-skilled and unskilled as well as artisans," he explained.

A scale model of Val de Vie Evergreen:

"People need to bear in mind that it is not just about delivering to the rich, but about creating jobs, enabling cash to flow into communities. Permanent employment is also created after a development has been completed."

It is very important, in his view, to realise that there is no value in bringing everybody to a base level. Rather raise the level.

Most prestigious

Although Val de Vie Evergreen will be the company's most prestigious retirement development, Wilson said Evergreen has also developed more affordable retirement properties, for example in Cape Town and Johannesburg, costing as little as R600 000 for a unit.

"We like to identify trends in real estate. We do research on the property market. SA might be way behind in retirement trends compared to international tendencies and how one looks at retirement," he explained.

Evergreen follows the increasingly popular international trend of using the life right model of ownership. In that way, Evergreen Lifestyle remains vested in a scheme and the standard of maintenance and management of a development can be ensured.

"We believe retirement is not a death sentence or prison sentence. I think retired people can have the same level of excitement as we had as students," said Wilson.

Martin Venter, CEO and founder of Val de Vie, told Fin24 the socio-economic component played an important part in the estate since the beginning. The Val de Vie Foundation focuses, among other things, on early childhood development, education and incubation for farm skills development. The foundation works with a few other trusts and NGOs in the area too.

Venter regards Val de Vie Evergreen as the next "season" being added to the estate's life cycle.

"We are at the dawn of a new season where Val de Vie will offer an extended, diversified product to the market. You have to offer something for everyone. Obviously, we are offering a lifestyle for high net worth individuals, but within the offering, prices can range from R3m to our gentlemen's estates of R100m," he added.

Missing piece

Arthur Case, CEO of Everygreen Group, said Val de Vie only had a retirement offering missing. In his view, the Evergreen development will add a lot of value to the estate. He sees a lot of synergy in the partnership with Val de Vie in that both focus on lifestyle.

"It is a move away from the old nursing home model to estate living with a hospitality culture," he said.

Nico de Waal – CEO of PSG Alpha, believes the setting at Val de Vie makes for a great opportunity.

"PSG is known for changing the industries in which it gets involved - for example with Capitec, PSG Konsult and Curro. Those businesses have changed the way people perceive banking and financial services and advice," said De Waal.

"With the Amdec partnership, we want to do the same in the retirement living sector. We think this is a fantastic growth sector in the economy and can transform the way people perceive and experience retirement living."

According to Renier Swart, sales director at Val de Vie, many buyers at the estate are HNWIs moving from Gauteng and KwaZulu Natal for safety and security reasons.

He pointed out that Val de Vie also has a sustainable water security programme.

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