House and Home August 2007
ELUNED PRICE
MY FAVOURITE HOME - NICK MOSSOP IN CAPE TOWN
Nick and his wife Sarah moved from London to Cape Town in 1990, building their own house in Constantia five years later. A chartered surveyor, Nick worked on a number of commercial developments until 2001 when he founded Cape Private Properties, a holiday lettings agency for private homes in the Western Cape. “Initially they were all friends’ houses. I just had to ‘marry’ them with other friends back in the UK looking to spend Christmas over here”. 6 years on, with a staff of four, he has over 200 houses and apartments on his books for vacation lets to UK clients most of whom work in the City.
You make it sound very easy
That’s because it was! We had always let our own house for a month or so at Christmas when it’s our summer holidays and in those days the Rand was so low six weeks rent could pay the children’s school fees for a year. Everybody did it. We’d go to our holiday cottage or go skiing. And when I was back in the UK people at dinner parties would talk about finding a holiday house in the Cape.
Do you come back to England often?
I’m back at least three times a year. The family home was in Hungerford, Berkshire. My brother still lives nearby, in Inkpen, in an extended 18th century cottage and we stay with them over Christmas and the New Year. Sarah and I have three children: Charlie who’s 21, studying Business Administration in Cape Town, Katie who’s 18 and at Stellenbosch University, and Phil. She’s 13 and still at home. My brother and his wife have three girls. The cousins get on riotously. We come over again in August and take a house all together at Rock in Devon. We’ve been doing that for 25 years now: the kids love it, we love it and everyone has the happiest time.
Do I detect a note of longing for good old Blighty?
Well, you do. I love the seasons, and the country and I love doing all the things I always used to do, a bit of shooting, fishing, walking, and sailing in the summer. We do all that in South Africa too, but it’s not the same. Last summer my brother and I fished the Test. It was wonderful, it had it all: the chalkstreams, the willows, the rolling hills. It was the essence of my childhood.
I was back again in November to see clients and ‘match’ them to the Cape houses. Guy and I went walking over the Berkshire Downs: the sky was a beautiful blue, there was a heavy frost on the ground and the air was crisp – it was breath-taking.
Your own house is pretty breath-taking, looking straight across to Table Mountain. Who designed it?
Sarah and I worked on it together. Until then we’d been living in a one-storey ranch style house but my father said “An Englishman has to go upstairs to sleep”, so we had to build a two-storey one. And when we did and I told him it had a tin roof he said, “My boy, at home we put tin roofs on our chicken sheds”. We couldn’t win. But he liked it when he saw it. It has a big rectangular hall that runs front to back, and all the rooms have long windows from floor to the ceiling to make the most of the clarity of the light here. There are five bedrooms and three bathrooms in 550 sq. m. Downstairs all the rooms lead onto the verandah at the back and look out over the garden. There’s a kitchen -cum - family room, a dining room, games room, my office, and Felix’s Room.
What is Felix’s Room?
It’s really the formal drawing room. It’s stuffed with antiques and plumpy sofas but Felix is the only one who uses it. He’s the cat. Sometimes we all go in there and jump up and down on the sofas and throw the cushions around. That tends to annoy Felix; he normally has it to himself.
Where do you entertain?
On the verandah. It’s wide and very long and we have a massive table that seats 14. When it ‘s cold or raining there are vertical blinds that wind down from the verandah roof and we put a heater in. It gives straight on to the garden which is about half an acre with the rear of Table Mountain behind. It’s north-facing which in the Southern Hemisphere is the right way round. Water drains the other way round too. The verandah and the garden and the pool are always being used for photo-shoots so I’m glad we designed it the way we did.
How long did it take to build?
It took just a year. That’s the wonderful thing about South Africa, everything moves so fast and changes so quickly. In business it’s like the country has picked up the baton and run. The UK is like a lumbering oil-tanker: it takes two days to turn round whereas South Africa is like a speedboat. Turned too far this way? Then wheeee! You can change course in seconds.
So you are optimistic for South Africa’s future?
Of course. Look, when we first came out here, just after Mandela was released from prison, the country had no longevity in terms of investment. Everyone was nervous, wondering what was going to happen. That was 17 years ago. Investment has been flooding in, the Rand has steadied, the property market has expanded tremendously.and the stock market went up 30% last year alone. After 40 years of little or no investment, South Africa is catching up with the rest of the world. South African’s at last, see longevity something which has been missing in the past..….a few more words about the economic outlook please technically I have space for six or so but can cut a little elsewhere if you want to add sthg important
Is the violence a deterrent? Will the murder of David Rattray have lasting negative impact?
David was a remarkable man and a great ambassador for South Africa. Many here don’t realise how much he contributed to international confidence in South Africa. I think some of the British who were planning to buy second homes in South Africa may have second thoughts. But I don’t think it will alter our rental market very much – 80% of our clients come here through recommendation and security is a top priority.
David’s murder exposes the cesspool of discontent that lies under the surface. But the violence is not primarily racial: over 18,000 people were murdered last year, 90 of them policemen. That’s more than all the Allied soldiers killed over the course of the war in Iraq.
A whole generation of white kids has grown up now without the bigotry of apartheid and 40 years of blind racism. The older generation see many cultural changes – more African art, film, TV, theatre, music - but the young love it, they don’t know anything else and they think it’s cool. With the expansion of the black middleclass and more education South Africa will be truly mixed in a couple of generations and it will be great. My children have English parents but they see themselves as South African.
But you still see yourself as an Englishman abroad?
I’m afraid I can’t help it. It is a privilege to live in a foreign country, to be exposed to other people’s cultures and see how they tick. It makes you more tolerant and gives you a greater perspective. But when my son Charlie and I sit down to watch the cricket or the rugby, he supports South Africa and I support England.
This is my favourite home because it’s my family’s favourite home. I couldn’t take them back to the UK because they wouldn’t be happy. Later on, Sarah and I might spend more time in England but we’ll keep our home here. They have a word to describe someone like me with one foot in Africa and one in the UK: soutpiel– your balls are in the ocean.
Cape Private Properties is at www.cpprop.com and rents Holiday villas and accommadation in and around Cape Town.
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