Waves a-breaking at Long Beach have brought big surf rankings to the little west coast seaside village of Kommetjie.
Otherwise known as the “small basin”, the area features a protected rocky inlet where the inner-Kom provides a tidal pool and fish trap for ocean birds. The outer-Kom, and one of the village’s many claims to fame, is accessed from the classic left-breaking reef point just 200 metres away – and if you don’t understand what that means, the surfers certainly will.
Walking and cycling around this friendly community, which shares a border with the Table Mountain World Heritage Site and Cape Point, just an hour away from Cape Town, highlight its attractions to newcomers who soon fall in with permanent holiday attire and good coffee, food and music.
Locals say that the majority of the 3 000-strong Atlantic coast community’s offspring enjoy a carefree lifestyle in the icy Benguela current from a young age. The vested interests of their parents, while centred around Kommetjie’s magazine cover “tubes”, “onions”, and “boilers” (more surfer-speak) provides a small village lifestyle within a close-knit community.
Schooling
Children enjoy easy access to a quality education at Kommetjie Primary, with Fish Hoek High School and private institutions no further than half an hour away. Many property owners, who chose to opt out of peak hour traffic along Main Road – the only entry and exit point to Kommetjie – say that home office space and off-peak surfing beat a city lifestyle hands down.
Greeff Properties area specialist, Tim Cummins, says that the area is divided into three parts of coastal, mountainside and flat areas. Beach houses are lined up from the Slangkop lighthouse toward Klein Slangkop Private Estate overlooking Chapman’s Peak and Noordhoek. Mountainside houses of generous proportions are situated above the inner- and outer-Koms and toward Capri, whereas the central position under the Milkwoods sits within close proximity of all local amenities.
The agent says
He says that Kommetjie comprises approximately 1 300 residential properties, including the suburb of Imhoff’s Gift and the private Bluewater Estate. He says average property values here have recovered well, and now exceed pre-bubble prices of 2008. “Entry level properties at around R1.5-million are moving quickly – for example, a three-bed room home without views , which fetched R1.4-million during the peak, would now fetch in excess of R1.6-million after minimal upgrades.”
Top asking prices for houses along the beach and in Klein Slangkop Private Estate that peak at around R20-milllion are rarely achieved as they compete with Atlantic Coast areas such as Camps Bay. Plot prices in the secure estate of Klein Slangkop, however, start at R2-million, with entry-level homes priced from R3.5-million upward, and monthly beach house rentals ranging upward from R10 000.
The sought-after Kommetjie lifestyle provides for residents with outdoor family interests, from mountain and coastal hiking, to diving, crayfishing and sunset beach picnics around shallow rock pools.
Kommetjie’s peak season attracts tourists and lures hospitality investors toward holiday letting, guest houses, and boutique hotels, while the low-season wet winters bring the superb surf conditions that have put the village on the international map.