With all the recent power cuts and water disruptions that have taken place in Joburg North, ‘green’ homes may become more attractive to potential homeowners.
Harcourts Real Estate group CEO Richard Gray believes homes that offer a degree of independence from local authority services will soon be among the most sought-after properties.
Gray noted how recent events have demonstrated how the supply of essential services has become increasingly erratic and uncertain.
“While many residents have come to terms with interruptions in the power supply since Eskom started load shedding in 2007, the sky-rocketing cost of electricity is a big concern for many, as is the poor management of the country’s increasingly inadequate water supply,” said Gray.
“Residents fear that widespread water restrictions and deliberate ‘rolling cutoffs’ are not far off.”
Fortunately, the options for achieving a good measure of self-sufficiency in both water and power supply are readily available and practical.
Gray said, “Most are also not that expensive in the long run, and the costs are generally readily recouped on resale of the property – and set to become more so.”
According to Gray, due to this, many thousands more householders should soon become familiar with the benefits of generators, heat pumps, gas stoves and solar geysers and panels, as well as rainwater storage tanks, and wind and solar pumps for boreholes.
Gray believes that due to drought and higher transport and food costs, it will increasingly make sense for homeowners to use at least some of their garden space, and their recycled bath water or stored rainwater, to establish a flourishing vegetable patch.
“If all this sounds apocalyptic that’s not the intention. The simple fact is that resources are strained everywhere, and that it makes good sense in environmental terms, as well as financial ones, to make a property as self-sufficient as possible when it comes to the provision of power and water for comfortable daily living,” he said.
