What are some good regions to look at for owning huntable land in Africa? Safety and resources a factor..

All I know is it costs around $250 an acre in northern Limpopo Province, RSA. RSA is probably the most stable country, fwiw.

Jack,
Don't take my advice the wrong way...but I would think long and hard before you purchase land in Africa for hunting use. In my experience is usually leads to the loss of friendships and a lot of unnecessary headaches. In the least I recomend you talk to others who have purchased land there. There is a lot of things to consider in overseas investments....lots can go wrong. If you are looking for a place to live part of the year and maybe to do a little hunting on then you may find it a good investment. If you expect to have property with abundant game on it for your exclusive use...be prepaired for disapointment unless you are willing to shell out a lot of money. Good luck with your decision what ever it is.

Regards,

R

Gentleman Jack,

Here are a few websites that have lots of good hunting land for sale in Africa (mostly in RSA):

Wildnet Africa Properties

Bushveld Game Farms

Wiltinnet Properties

GAMEFARMNET

If I bought a hunting property in RSA I think I would first look in Natal due to the heavy rainfall. The second place I would look is the Limpopo Province. Just my $.02, hope the links are helpful.

I have often thought that if you owned a decent sized hunting property in Africa, it would benefit you to get a good, reputable PH to run hunts on it while you aren't there. You could just set aside certain numbers of certain animals for you and/or your family to hunt. Maybe you could at least cover the operating costs. Just a thought.

That is the headache and loss of friendship I was speaking about!

Roscoe, I can certainly see your point! I think we have all been in that kind of situation at some point in time. This land that I am asking about would be atleast 50% of my dwelling time. In other words, there wont be anyone flipping the bill but me...

quote:

Originally posted by Indy:
All I know is it costs around $250 an acre in northern Limpopo Province, RSA. RSA is probably the most stable country, fwiw.

Alas, I fear that those days are over, and we will see that things will be steadily heading downhill there in the next decade or so...

quote:

Originally posted by Gentleman Jack:
Roscoe, I can certainly see your point! I think we have all been in that kind of situation at some point in time. This land that I am asking about would be atleast 50% of my dwelling time. In other words, there wont be anyone flipping the bill but me...

All I can say is be careful. It is not a money thing....more of a friendship thing. In the end...being in africa is about visiting friends....when you own your property your friends are somewhere else working...you are on your own. A whole different ball game. As I said...IMO...keep your money in the states. You will be happier in the long run.

With a Namibian as partner, NE namibia would be worth a look. There is quite a bit of this going on there. The area is not ag productive, the theory being that with a partner and not considered "prime" the liklihood of problems are very slight. This is , for the most part, sandy soil thornveld with boreholes. Another option would be the Tuli area in Botswana. There are quite a few non-res owners in there with no apparent problems. Not sure what procedures they went through. If I was looking RSA would not be on the short list.

An operator in RSA that I call a friend has an American partner. When they went into business together he told the America partner not to invest any money that he could not afford to just forget about. If the chance of loosing your investment, land, possessions is worth the return in pleasure than it is worth the risk.

Mark

SA and Namibia both think they have something to learn from Mugabe.....land-hungry voters are getting impatient.

Botswana is 99 year lease for the most part, and hot and dry as hell in the summer (same for Namibia...we only go there to hunt in the winter months so we don't experience the summer).

At this point in the cycle I would look at picking something up in Zimbabwe. Can't get worse. The others sure can.

Or look north. Someone said Uganda but I have no info.

Land in Southern Africa ...

Well as per usual the debate rages on the opportunties, pro's and cons, and at the end of the day one never knows what is right and what is wrong, like any investment in this day and age, nothing in life is guaranteed, we have to follow trends and our hearts and make decisions.

Personally speaking we ( Balla-Balla Safaris ) family operation have been in the (wildlife ranching land business) for 18 years in Southern Africa, we have some v good experience in Ranches, Land, Safaris and Hunting operations.

At this moment in time we are selling one of our SA-Limpopo Province ranches to the government for BEE aquisition, that process is underway, but it takes time so we just carry on operating the property as per normal, no worries @ all as we want to concentrate on less and bigger ventures.

Our second SA ranch in the mountains is working like clockwork ... BUT we are presently considering a possible sale of the ranch as well, particularily as we are NOW further developing our Exclusive Zambia Property into a multi million dollar fractional share ownership investment, that is where we are presently concentrating our main resources.

Land in Zambia is generally bought on a 99-year lease title arrangement, and investment criteria within Zambia is nice and conducive to investors. We are very positive OURSELVES about Zambia and the medium long term future and have in fact purchased a second smaller ranch property there as well.

Life passes us by all by tooooooo quickly to procrastinate, and we believe that as far as Africa goes the future might be more rosy than what is going on in many other parts of the world at present, just watch the news and see the troubles that face previously first world countries

Cheers, Peter

quote:

Originally posted by Indy:
All I know is it costs around $250 an acre in northern Limpopo Province, RSA. RSA is probably the most stable country, fwiw.

And from this thread, a quote from RSA's Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka:
https://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1411043/m/862104315

quote:

Unfortunately, several countries continue to ignore this lesson. In South Africa President Thabo Mbeki expressed interest during his latest state of the nation speech in revisiting the "willing buyer, willing seller" principle for land redistribution. South Africa is expected to begin expropriating farmland at state-determined prices this year, part of a broader attempt to address the economic inequalities inherited from apartheid.

South Africa Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka agrees that the pace of land reform should be accelerated. "There needs to be a bit of oomph," she said in a 2005 interview. "That’s why we may need the skills of Zimbabwe to help us."

A few years ago I almost bought a house in Marloth Park adjacent to Kruger - not as a hunting property but as a vacation home and kind of base camp as there are all kinds of hunting opportunities around there.

The homes were quite nice on substantial lots with wildlife roaming thru all the time. Also, they were ridiculously cheap; starting around US$20,000.00 (or even less) if I remember correctly.

After doing some research I learned that there was a land claim against the entire area and people were tryng to unload their properties for just about anything they cold get, so I passed on the deal.

Anyway, it seems the land claim was denied and prices are back up to where they were before, so it can work both ways.

quote:

A few years ago I almost bought a house in Marloth Park

Nice place to live, that!!! Shame you never got that home!!!!

perhaps again sometime.

Do not forget that as a resident you may not be as free in the importation, possession and use of firearms as a visiting hunter, depending on the country. Talk to a resident of Zambia, take a look at the firearms licencing hassles of South Africans, etc. You might just find it more convenient to rent a place somewhere in Africa for a few months of the year.

I´ve done some investing in SA and so far so good, that is everything has worked out. Owning you own ranch will be difficult if you´re not living there all year, I´d recommend a partnership with an operator that you can trust.

How do you know if you can trust someone?

I guess that is one of the thrills of investment!

quote:

Originally posted by kayaker:

quote:

A few years ago I almost bought a house in Marloth Park

Nice place to live, that!!! Shame you never got that home!!!! perhaps again sometime.

In my dreams. I think that was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Still, even at current prices, Marloth looks interesting.

[QUOTE] At this point in the cycle I would look at picking something up in Zimbabwe. Can't get worse. The others sure can.
[QUOTE]

Now there's an interesting idea.

If you go to the first link I posted above and click on the Zambia section, there is a place that is 51,000 hectares (about 125,000 acres) for only $3,200,000 USD. That's only $25/acre.

Anybody interested in this one?

660 hectare Buffalo breeding farm

I've done quite a bit of research on this issue primarily in RSA.....bottom line, I wouldn't do it and I advise you not to as well, especially at the current rand/dollar exchange rate UNLESS YOU INTEND TO IMMIGRATE TO RSA and even then I check my hole card 3 times.

If I did do it, as someone said above, I'd use "mad money" that you can afford to lose all of your investment.

There are substantial problems with hunting on YOUR OWN LAND in RSA as a non-resident and even more as far as having guns at your ranch.

Unfortunately, the eventual result in RSA and Namibia is seen daily in Zimbabwe. You've got most of the voters with little assets and most of the asset owners with little vote. Since the votes have the ability to change the rules and change the tax rates, I don't think the asset owners will like the eventual results.

OTOH, if I was going to do it, I think that being a silent money partner with a South African is your only chance for success and you'd better know him a lot better than you think you do is all I can say.

A longtime hunting buddy here in Arizona is a lawyer who owns property loaded with elephants and plains game along the Limpopo in Botswana's Tuli Block. I've hunted there, and so have his other friends. Roscoe's thoughts about friendship problems make sense, especially now that he is setting up a hunting operation there. He's had no problem that I know of with government.

Bill Quimby