CONSTRUCTION of the first two new homes at the controversial 230ha Kenton Eco Estate near Kenton-on- Sea has begun, with the building of further homes to start next year, says Pam Golding Properties.

So far, 60% of the 330 stands have been sold, at prices ranging between R460000 and R1,6-million, Pam Golding area principal Michael Wilmot said on Friday.

The remainder of the stands are priced from R500000 to R1,65-million. Each measures about 850m².

Buyers to date are mainly local, with a sprinkling of those from overseas. As purchasers are obliged to build within five years of taking transfer, many more buildings will likely follow, and the pace of construction “will pick up considerably in the next four to five years”, he said.

The estate includes 2,15km of unspoilt beach accessed over private boardwalks, 150ha of dense coastal forest and 70ha of dune forest. There is free movement of buck, including threatened oribi, and other game. It incorporates features like solar geysers and replanting after construction. Sites are “discreetly positioned within enclaves of natural bush and grassland”.

Only sustainably harvested local materials can be used in the construction of the homes and only indigenous plants can be planted in the gardens.

All services have been installed on the estate and the official hand-over for the first homes to start construction took place on November 24, with the estate’s executive director, Chris Swart, and Neels Heunis of CM Heunis Building Contractors, turning the symbolic first sod.

Before the eco-estate project was approved in 2007, heavyweight opposition came from local property owners including former FNB chief Chris Ball, who highlighted the official “high conservation priority zone” status of the proposed project site, because of its coastal thicket vegetation.

The opposition lobby argued that approval of the project would lead to unsustainable ribbon development spreading along the Sunshine Coast.