When a Mauritian businessman heard a couple of years ago that a historic plantation house in the island’s capital of Port Louis was on the market, he seized the opportunity to save a piece of local heritage.
The home, called Avenport House, was built in 1853 for the French sugar cane magnate Georges Thomy-Thiéry. The eight-room mansion, which has four bedrooms, two bathrooms and a large vaulted attic, was designed as a traditional colonial French plantation house. It has elegant covered balconies, an extensive private courtyard and stands amid lush gardens on Saint Georges Street, once one of the city’s grandest avenues.
After Thomy-Thiéry returned to France in the 1870s, the house had three owners before being sold to the local businessman, who bought the property for an undisclosed price.
Few of the island’s historic homes are still standing and even fewer are in good condition as they were built mainly of wood. Time and the Mauritian weather, with its heavy rains and cyclones, take their toll, and maintenance is expensive.
Development also has had an impact on Port Louis’s heritage. The chaotic, crowded capital has a busy industrial harbor and is a haphazard mix of ramshackle low-rise dwellings, shops and street markets, punctuated with Victorian-era government properties and newer high rises. These house the offices of banks and finance companies that, along with information technology, manufacturing and tourism, form the basis for the economy on this Indian Ocean island, which measures 2,040 square kilometers, or 788 square miles.
Behind its large iron gates, Avenport House is an oasis of calm elegance. The fa?ade and entrance porch, with original decorative tiled floor, pretty portico and ironwork balconies painted white, show no sign that the house was dilapidated before its recent renovation.
“It was in a very sad state and needed a lot of work to make it habitable again,” said Ilinka Lukic of Haka Designs, an interiors company in London that helped complete the renovations and décor. “But the owner wanted the house to be regenerated in exactly the same style it was built in.”
The exterior walls of teak boards and stone were renovated, replastered and painted white. The original shutters were restored and painted blue, like the original color scheme. The roof, which was replaced, is in the traditional French toile style, with tiles made from teak.
Local artisans used traditional methods for the repairs, which often required a lot of handwork. “We rubbed down and repainted the ironwork, and the teak floorboards, which are over three meters long, were professionally treated and retained where possible or replaced where necessary,” Ms. Lukic said.
All the original window frames, internal doors, ceiling beams and any surviving wall moldings also were refurbished. At the time of purchase, much of the interior woodwork was rotten and, in places, infested with termites.
The central staircase is solid teak, with the patina acquired over 150 years, although the original banister was replaced in the 20th century. “The banister is not authentic, but the owner wanted us to leave everything as it was, to show how the house had evolved,” Ms. Lukic said. “I wasn’t allowed to replace some of the inauthentic window catches or doorknobs, so you have some from the 1800s, others from the 1950s or later.”
Most of the rooms have been decorated with 19th-century antiques and chandeliers, though the top-floor landing and two rooms on that level are used as gallery space for the owner’s collection of 20th-century and contemporary art. As a result, these areas have a modern look, with inset spotlights and bespoke teak furniture that was made by local crafts people.
Bringing the house’s utilities up to date was the biggest headache. “It was difficult to incorporate modern technology, air conditioning, wiring and plumbing into such a historic building,” said Gerald Pedaloo, the project’s manager. “The owner wanted the work to be completely hidden within the fabric of the property. So we had to lift floorboards and lower ceilings.”
When it comes to the island’s real estate market, there is little demand for heritage buildings, said Souben Vyravene, owner of Souben Properties, a local real estate agency. “Most historic properties were situated in prime positions and the high market value of the land on which they were located means many have been demolished to make way for new construction,” Mr. Vyravene said.
Mr. Vyravene said that the island is attracting overseas and local investment, creating a development boom that has lifted real estate prices. “Even in areas that, 10 years ago, had little value, prices are now relatively high,” he said.
Society on Mauritius also is changing, with more young people among its 1.3 million residents choosing to buy their own places, rather than remaining with their parents into adulthood, as is the local tradition. Locals tend to settle around tourism hot spots, like Grand Baie, or the employment centers of Ebene and Quatre Bornes, near the technology hub Cyber City.
The price of resales in the local market start from around 3 million Mauritian rupees, or nearly $98,000, for a two-bedroom apartment and from around 15 million rupees for a three- to four-bedroom villa, depending on location.
However, Chris Immelman, sales agent with the property agency Pam Golding, said coastal property in the local market was beginning to keep pace with residences aimed at the international market. For example, he said, a two-bedroom apartment in a nice block, near the beach, now would sell for around 9.28 million rupees.
Mauritius particularly appeals to buyers from South Africa, Britain and France, though Southeast Asia, the Middle East and India are also represented, agents say. And interest has risen in recent years, since ownership regulations were relaxed for non-nationals.
Since 2002, the government has allowed non-nationals to buy residences through the Integrated Resort Scheme, which permits freehold purchase of property priced from 15.46 million rupees in a residential resort with leisure facilities. It also entitles the owner to residence and tax benefits, including a 15 percent personal and corporate income tax and no inheritance taxes.
In 2008, the country’s Real Estate Scheme began allowing the purchase of less expensive properties by non-nationals but without residence status.
“The majority of our investors are entrepreneurs; we also have financiers,” said Anton De Waal, chief executive of the luxury golf resort Villas Valriche in Bel Ombre. “Most use their properties for three to four months of the year, but we do have some permanent residents.”
No comments:
Post a Comment