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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Who manages the
Reserve and the Estate?
Is the
reserve open to the public and day visitors?
Who owns the game in the
reserve?
What game can I expect to see?
What will happen to excess
game?
Why is this reserve such an important conservation priority?
What
is the benefit of World Heritage Site status
for the reserve?
What about
security for the Reserve and the Estate?
What about access to
the Private Sites?
Can I own a
Private Site or lodge on my own?
What is syndication?
Can
my Private Site be rented out or run as a guest house?
Who determines the levy for the Private Sites and what will it be?
Do owners have access to the rest of the reserve and how is traversing
regulated?
May I
drive to my Private Site with my own vehicle?
Who
will construct my private lodge?
Who will clean
and maintain my private lodge?
What about
maintenance of my game viewing vehicle?
Are there standard plans to choose from if I buy a Private Site?
What is the size of building permitted for a Private Site?
How will my investment grow?
Who manages the Reserve and the Estate?
The conservation management of the entire Reserve (including the Estate) is
done by the Mpumalanga Tourism & Parks Agency (MTPA) who is the provincial
conservation authority for Mpumalanga province. The
reason for this is the exceptionally high conservation priority of the
reserve. The MTPA budgets for this
function through an internal budget in line with their legislated mandate.
Additional to the conservation management, the 18 private lodges situated on the Estate within the Reserve, are managed
by a dedicated estate manager with staff compliment paid from owner’s
levies.
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Is the reserve open to the public and day visitors?
No. Only landowners and operators of the commercial lodges
(only three are planned) and contracted
specialist tour operators may traverse the reserve. Thus
the only way the public
has access to the reserve is by way of specialist tours and game drives from
the commercial lodges, which are all on a guided basis with game viewing
vehicles. These commercial vehicles operate on predetermined routes and do
not come close to the area where the Private Sites
are situated.
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Who owns the game in the reserve?
All game is owned pro-rata per land size by the landowners of the reserve.
Special arrangements may apply where rare or expensive game
is introduced
by an individual landowner.
Despite any such arrangement, there are no internal game fences in the
reserve and none will be allowed. All game roams freely across the
reserve.
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What game can I expect to see?
The full range of plains game from Zebra, Kudu, Impala, Red Hartebeest,
Wildebeest, Eland etc. can be seen through to smaller game such as red duiker,
klipspringer and various small mammals. Various predators and scavengers
such as Leopard, jackal and aardwolf are also present. Ultimately the
reserve will have all the big five game except lion.
Download a full list of
mammals here….
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What will happen to excess game?
Excess game will be captured live and sold to other reserves
and conservancies. The proceeds
from game sales will supplement the reserve management budget and
be used to enhance reserve facilities. All the game on
the reserve are disease free and will therefore fetch premium prices.
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Why is this reserve such an important conservation priority?
The reserve has a high number of very exceptional plants and animal species
which are endemic to the area and important from a national
and international perspective. It
is also a core part of one of South Africa’s next World Heritage Sites, based
on its globally unique geology. In line with international best practice
South Africa also classifies different habitat types according to a range of
criteria to determine conservation priorities. Mountainlands has through
these processes consistently stood out as one of the countries highest
conservation priorities.
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What
is the benefit of World Heritage Site status
for the reserve?
It formalizes global recognition of the area as important for all man kind.
Thus, besides the formal protection status held from a provincial and
national perspective, the international recognition serves to elevate
Mountainlands beyond local ideology and policy. It therefore offers a large measure
of protection against possible future policy changes and political
instability which may place ill considered imperatives on changing the land
use. In a nutshell World Heritage Status ensures that the area remains
protected for future generations as a recognized area of
global significance.
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What about security for the Reserve and the Estate?
Security on the reserve is ensured by two layers of security arrangements in
the reserve: Firstly, the management of the reserve also entails the normal,
perimeter fence patrols and wildlife protection. Secondly, the Estate has a
zone of higher level security created by its own security and access control
arrangements for the valleys in which the Private Sites are located. Lastly,
and perhaps most importantly, the reserve is situated in a rural area with a
very low crime rate.
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What about access to the Private Sites?
All Private Sites have access directly from the R40 tarred road via a
dedicated, monitored security gate.
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Can I own a Private Site or lodge on my own?
Yes. There are 18 exclusive sites of one hectare each that can be owned
outright on full title. For more information link to
Private Site page …
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What is syndication?
Syndication is a secure method of facilitating joint ownership of a full
title property, shared by multiple owners. For more information link to
Syndication page…
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Can my Private Site be rented out or run as a guest house?
The Constitution of the Estate and agreement with the reserve precludes
running any site as a commercial operation. This means it cannot be run as a
Guest House, Bed & Breakfast or similar. However, making it available on a cost recovery
basis to family, friends and colleagues is allowed within reasonable limits.
Three development sites
have been identified specifically for commercial
game lodges. These
are situated in the northern and eastern
sections of the reserve where they will not impact on
the 18 private
sites.
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Who determines the levy for the Private Sites and what will it
be?
Levies are decided collectively by the 18 private owners through the
Mountainlands Estate Owners Association, of which all owners are a member.
They determine the levy by budgeting every year for the expenses involved in
managing the Estate. For inception the developer has compiled a budget for
this purpose based on actual costs incurred by the developer in running the
Estate until handover to the Owners Association. Based on
this, the indicative monthly levies
are therefore R3600 per site or R360 per 1/10th syndicated share in
the case of
a syndicated lodge.
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Do owners have access to the rest of the reserve and how is
traversing regulated?
Yes. All landowners have access to approximately 117 km of existing roads in
the reserve as well as any new roads which may be
constructed from time to time and a further 86 km of 4x4 tracks. All private access roads which lead to or past sites of lodges
will be marked private, with access only to the owner or guests of that
particular site. Absolute privacy is a priority in the reserve.
The Constitution and Management Regulations provide the framework within
which traversing is regulated.
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May I drive to my Private Site with my own vehicle?
Yes. Access roads to private lodges are suitable for all weather access. To protect
the ambience of the reserve, owners are encouraged to use
custom game
viewing vehicles when traversing around the reserve. For this purpose lockup
garages are provided near the main gate where these vehicles can be kept and
where private cars can also be left.
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Who
will construct my private lodge?
A professional team of builders and engineers will build each lodge under
the supervision of a registered architect. This team can be a client’s own
contractors or the developer’s team of contractors, depending on the clients
requirements and availability at the time. The entire process is monitored
by the Estate architect to ensure compliance with standards and other
regulations. The developer offers a full turnkey service from purchase,
through construction, to occupation of your Private Site.
Utilising this service is optional.
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Who will clean and maintain my private lodge?
Maintenance of each site is the responsibility of the owner/s of such site.
However, the Estate staff are available to do all cleaning and any
maintenance on request of the owner/s. Domestic staff will be available on
request when owners are in residence and cleaning can be
arranged before your arrival.
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What about maintenance of my game viewing vehicle?
As game-viewers typically do not accrue high mileages, arrangements can be
made for cost effective and collective servicing to be done periodically on
site for all the vehicles.
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Are there standard plans to choose from if I buy a Private
Site?
No. The sites are highly exclusive and each site is quite
unique. It requires a
specialized approach to design each lodge to bring together the owner’s
requirements and the attributes of the site. This is done by an architect
for each site individually.
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What is the size of building permitted for a Private Site?
A Private home or Private lodge of 750 m2 may be constructed with a maximum
of 12 beds, situated on a development footprint of 2500m2. This may be
increased depending on the specific site.
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How will my investment
grow?
There are three tiers to the investment growth in Mountainlands: Firstly,
wildlife properties have consistently shown significantly higher growth
than any other property sector in the South African economy of the last
decade. Secondly, earlier buyers will benefit from the growth in sales
prices of Private Sites as dictated by the developer according to their
planning. This is based on the general rule for developments like these,
that the last site sells for minimum three times the price of the first
site (without any inflation adjustment). Thirdly, while there are already significant game numbers on the
reserve, the sales prices will show disproportionate growth at the
introduction of the Big Five game species which is already planned for the
reserve.
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