The “Gupta compound” in Saxonwold, Joburg, has been sold to a single buyer for R34.5m, marking the end of an era for the once-notorious properties at the centre of state capture allegations.
Park Village Auctions announced the successful sale of the properties on numbers 3, 5 and 7 Saxonwold Drive and their contents, comprising furniture and appliances. The sale price was inclusive of buyer’s commission and VAT.
PVA’s Clive Lazarus said the buyer also purchased number 7A Saxonwold Drive for R6.5m, including buyer’s commission and VAT separately. This was not part of the Gupta assets.
“The Business Rescue Practitioners are satisfied with this outcome, as is PVA. The sale signifies how we, with the BRPs, will be relentless in reclaiming funds owed to creditors,” said Lazarus.
The total value of all the properties had been listed at R64m in presale advertising.
When the bigger two homes failed to sell at auction and the smaller one only received an offer well below perceived market value, the auctioneers decided to adopt a private sale process.
The Saxonwold compound once served as the Gupta family’s South African residence during their rise to political influence and was where the controversial brothers wined and dined politicians in what was widely viewed as part of a strategy to capture state influence and secure government contracts.
They fled South Africa in 2018 and the government is still pursuing extradition processes so that they can face criminal charges.
House No 7 is a three-storey entertainment house featuring 17 en suite bedrooms. It has a municipal valuation of R36.8m and monthly rates bill of R29,433.
House No 5 is a three-storey property known among staff and auctioneers as “the white house” and has a municipal value of R21.7m.
No 3 is a single-storey house with three bedrooms, a storeroom, staff quarters and a small garage. Its municipal valuation is R5.5m.
TimesLIVE
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