Africa's costliest home for Cape Town

A South African publishing tycoon and art dealer is building a Cape Town mansion that property experts say will be the most expensive in Africa.

The 3587m² palace in South Africa's most expensive street is slated to become one of the world's most sought-after homes, with a potential price tag of at least double anything else on the market.

London-based Dennis Hotz demolished his previous mansion in Nettleton Road to make way for the new designer pad.

In an interview with the Sunday Times from London, he said his new home would be unique.

He bought the main property 15 years ago and gradually added adjoining land.

"Most of the other houses on Nettleton have a view just of the sea. Because we have no neighbours, we have uninterrupted views of the sea, the Twelve Apostles and right up to Lion's Head.

"That is why it was so difficult to make the house work - because we have views everywhere," said Hotz, who also owns a home in Franschhoek.

"We had an architect who worked on the house initially and who came out to South Africa a few times to do some plans. He felt it was one of the top 10 sites in the world. We kind of wanted to do something special with the house."

Artworks would include light sculptures, video and audio installations, "not just paintings hanging on the wall", said Hotz, who hopes to spend four or five months of the year in South Africa.

Already under construction, his new home will make his wealthy neighbours look cheap. It will have a 24m "fire pool" and 12-seater home cinema, and will be partly suspended six metres above a gully.

The site adjoins a nature reserve on the slopes of Lion's Head.

The design includes a games room, wine cellar, all the best kitchen and furniture brands, and a variety of conceptual art.

Property experts said that, once completed, the mansion would easily eclipse the record sale price of R70-million.

If it lives up to expectations, it will rank among the world's top 10 most valuable homes that sell above R500-million.

"It is the best and most expensive street in South Africa, in no uncertain terms," said Lance Cohen of Seeff Properties. "It's the most exclusive address in Africa and has been for the past 10 years."

Architect Stefan Antoni, whose company designed Hotz's new home, said this week the views were some of the best in the world.

"Clifton is unique in many ways. It exists within a finite area and cannot expand past certain geographical constraints. This substantially increases the value of any property in Clifton."

Antoni also owns a home in the street. "What makes Nettleton Road even more distinctive is that it has its own microclimate. It is wind-free and enjoys a remarkable vantage point for setting suns."

Hotz is not well known in South Africa despite his huge success abroad. He made headlines years ago when he married billionaire heiress Sigrid Rausing, daughter of Swiss packaging magnate Hans Rausing.

The City of Cape Town building inspectorate this week said building plans had been approved despite objections by some nearby neighbours.

The place is not likely to impress the well-heeled of Nettleton Road, which has of late been the scene of huge cranes towering above the trees.

"It's just not the same quiet street it was when I moved in," said one resident.

The street has experienced more than its fair share of neighbourhood spats and controversies regarding building plans and sightlines. Resident millionaires and billionaires past and present include banker Paul Harris, developer Stuart Chiat, Indian beverages tycoon Vijay Mallya, former Western Province rugby coach Harry Viljoen, and former Pick n Pay chief executive officer Sean Summers.

Several years ago, Safari Lodge tycoon Luke Bailes spent more than R1-million on shrubs and trees to help his house blend into the mountainside. Ten-metre-high olive and peach trees were hoisted onto his property using a 250-ton crane.

One owner recently bought two houses, for R40-million and R50-million, and plans to demolish both so that he can design his own.

Over-eager building plans have led to regular transgressions of height restrictions and building lines, and obstructing ocean views.

Hotz's home may be unaffordable for most home buyers, but it is a bargain compared with the world's most expensive homes. These include the 27-storey skyscraper residence of Indian tycoon Mukesh Ambani in Mumbai, valued at more than R10-billion.