AGULHAS APARTMENTS
Although Agulhas was built way back in the Seventies and was one of the very first buildings in the Bedford Gardens estate it has all, if not more modern facilities and features found in recently developed buildings. Since that time a lot of owners have considerably improved and modernised their apartments and this is still taking place and is actively encouraged by our Trustee
s. Management
Our Managing Agents are the Property Management Division of Renprop and our Trustees are very progressive and hands-on. Our finances are well controlled and managed through monthly budget reports that are checked and reviewed by our Trustees, while audited reports are presented on an annual basis to all owners and discussed at our AGM’s, which are generally well run and attended by a large number of our owners. All owners and their tenants are encouraged to adhere to our conduct rules, which are strictly enforced by our Building Manager and supported by our Trustees. Agulhas has 12 floors each with 8 flats, 2 of which are 3 bedroom units and the remaining six have two bedrooms. We also have 8 apartments on the first floor with very large patios. When compared to current building standards all our apartments are a good size as the 3 bedroom flats are 121 square meters while the 2 bedroom flats are a mixture of 92 and 95 square meters. One of the nice features of Agulhas is that it is one of the tallest buildings in the area and most apartments enjoy spectacular views as far as the eye can see, as well as of the large gardens and swimming pools directly in front of our building. The entire building was repainted in 2014 and all 12 floors as well as our entrance area have been retiled and upgraded. Secure Parking
We have ample and very secure exclusive use parking bays with 3 levels of underground parking, apart from which we also have 22 covered carports and a further 25 bays of open parking. Secure casual visitors’ parking is also available. Cleaning Services. All common property areas of our building are kept in a meticulously clean condition by our outsourced specialist cleaning company that services our building 7 days a week. Our Entertainment areas. We are one of the few buildings in Bedford Gardens with our own full size tennis court and a large sparkling swimming pool, both of which are for exclusive use by our residents. Our gardens are the envy of the surrounding buildings as garden benches complete with tables and large umbrellas are placed right throughout our well-maintained beautiful bird friendly garden, which also has a Gazebo and a large safe kiddies play area, which is very popular and is the envy of our neighbours. Security
Our property is very secure as we have a guard on duty 24/7 and we also have a contract with an armed response company that can be called within minutes should we need additional assistance. Our grounds are protected by palisade fencing, which at street level is further secured by electric fencing on top. Our grounds are well lit at night with a large number of lights positioned right along our street border. We have a large investment in a digital CCTV system with 32 cameras placed at strategic points right throughout our building and at the entrance. Both our security guard and Building Manager have a large monitor in their office, providing them with a clear view of all floors and other areas of our building. Our Lifts
Agulhas is equipped with 2 modern lifts that were installed in 2015 at a cost of just over 2 million rand. Both lifts are fitted with CCTV cameras and an intercom system in each lift is connected direct to our security office. Therefore in the unlikely event of a lift breakdown anyone stuck in the lift only needs to press the alarm system and is immediately able to call for assistance from our security office. DSTV
To ensure that we are ready to enjoy the benefits when Multichoice changes over to the Intelsat 36 Satelite in 2016 we recently upgraded our DSTV system to the latest carbon fiber satelite dish with carbon fiber cables running to multiswitches on all 12 floors. Our carbon fiber satelite installation also eliminates any downtime from lightning strikes, thus giving us a very low maintenance and very steady satelite signal to all apartments. Central Hot Water
Another great and significant cost saving feature of Agulhas is that all apartments are connected to our central hot water system which is fed by our central electrical boiler and 3 recently acquired heat pumps. This results in significant electricity cost savings for all owners while the total electricity cost of running the entire building is also well controlled from the heat pumps that pre-heat the water in the boiler. Further electricity cost savings are achieved from our use of Led globes that have been fitted to all corridors and security lights in our common property areas. Generator
Load shedding hardly bothers us as we have a 114KVA diesel powered generator that strats up automatically during power failures. It keeps both our lifts running while the generator also keeps our corridor and outside security lights on and entrance gates keep working thus ensuring that our building remains secure even when all buildings around us are in darkness. Water Conservation
In response to the recent drought we installed 5 X 2500 litre JOJO tanks in our garden that collect both rainwater from our roof for filling our swimming pool and we also collect an amount “reclaimed” water from owners bathrooms for watering our gardens. This installation gives us not only significant savings in our municipal water charges but it also ensures that our gardens are well watered right throughout any periods of drought. While mentioning water we are considerably better off than most buildings as we not only have a large water tank on our roof but we also have a very large reserve water vessel in our basement that pumps water automatically to our tank on the roof whenever the municipal water supply fails. In such cases we are also able to ration the water supply to all apartments to ensure that our water reserves lasts and we have early warning systems on our supply lines so that we are alerted whenever the municipal water supply fails. Borehole
Realising that our grey water reserves mentioned above would not help us in times of municipal water supply failures in late 2016 the trustees decided to install a borehole on our property. The borehole was completed early in 2017 with the result that we now also have a steady flow of underground water, which is pumped into a 5000-liter storage tank and is used to supplement our municipal water supply. The end result is that our residents will never need to worry again about water shortages, which with all our other major fallback systems already in place, continues to make Agulhas the most unique self-sufficient and energy conservative building in the area. Location
It is a well known fact that ,when considering making an investment in property, “Position, Position Position” is one of the major issues to consider. This is were Agulhas scores very high as we are within 5 minutes walking distance from Bedford Centre which has several NuMetro and Ster-Kinekor cinemas and 180 stores amongst which are major chains such as Pick ‘n Pay, Woolworth, Dischem, Dion Wired, Edgars etc. and a large number of formal and fast food restaurants and for the fitness enthusiasts there is also a large Planet Fitness gym at the center. Furthermore Eastgate and Park Meadows are within walking distance as these major shopping centres are only about 2.5 km away. Medical help is also witin wallking distance of Agulhas as the Life Health Bedfordview Hospital and a large amount of Medical suites is just around the corner in Leicester Road. We also have a large selection of both well known private schools, such as Bishop Bavin and Reddam House, as well as government schools and colleges within close proximity of Agulhas. A further advantage of living in Agulhas is that we are very close to all major highways while O.R. Tambo international airport is a mere 15 km away.
