Buying a game farm Again

[Serbian Hunter]

I believe that there is no hunter in a world who left Africa without thought of buying a hunting farm somewhere on that continent. I know that that topic appeared many times on this forum and I read many comments coming from obviously knowledgeable people with mutual message – don’t do that! I know it’s hard, I know J. Malema is dreaming of being new Robert Mugabe, risk of taking over farms, that owning farm means less (not more) time for hunt and lot of work I even know for last week discussion in RSA about new restrictive gun law implementation…but this discussion was also hot and up to date 13 ys ago I first time visited Namibia. Very same risk exists today but I am 13 ys older. What if all those potential risks stay – potential in decades to come?

Risk & hard work – isn’t it something we are facing every day? Aren’t you working hard every day in US/EU? Don’t you have a risk of loosing a job? If you put your hard-earned buck on stock market or Bitcoin, aren’t you taking a risk of loosing it?

My point is – is there any positive experience from somebody who was brave and determined enough to replace office, concrete, boss and safety with farming at “last best place”?

 

[Hogpatrol]

Are you considering buying and operating a hunting game farm or one where you and a select few hunt? If the former, due diligence on the historical number of hunters visiting Africa would be a good place to start your research.

 

[Hunter4752001]

On my only hunting trip to South Africa I met a couple of gentlemen from Norway. Some years earlier they had purchased a game farm in Eastern Cape with the intent to use it as a largely private hunting property ie for themselves a few select guests. They only visited the farm a few times a year. They employed a local manger to maintain the property and animals. Over the years they spent a lot of money buying breeding stock, building a house and generally improving the property. They started getting stories about how some of the higher value animals had escaped and other problems reduced the stock numbers. This trip, they visited unannounced. They found a group of visiting hunters staying in their house. It was quite obvious that their manager was hiring out the property for his own financial gain, basically robbing them blind. Likewise, while it couldn't be proved, it appeared that the "escaped" high value animals had actually been sold by the manager to other game farms. My PH who heard the story commented that it was an all to common occurrence. If you're not there personally to supervise then the sharks rip you off till nothings left.

 

[Red Leg]

If you want to buy a game ranch as a personal hunting destination, Texas would be a far safer investment.

Africa is a big place. Much of the continuing fascination for me is in visiting and hunting different environments and species. If you aren’t planning on being there for months at a time, your game farm investment begins to look a lot like a hugely expensive time share. For that same initial and continuing investment, you could mount hunting safaris annually all across the hunting regions of Africa.

I have never understood the value in maintaining and returning to same condo at the same resort for a week or two year after year. The game farm would, in short order, begin to look much the same. And unlike a time share, in South Africa, you would be hard pressed to find a cottage industry of legal firms waiting to extract you and your investment from the mess when the novelty wears off.

 

[wesheltonj]

If you really want to buy a game farm in Africa, I know one for sale in RSA. I hunted there a few years ago. The owner has been trying to sell without any luck. I guess no one wants to buy only to see the farm redistributed to others. It’s a nice operation, nice lodge, horse stables and paddocks, donkey stable, breeding operation, and large continuous exclusive hunting grounds.

I am with @Red Leg buy in Texas, at least currently your ownership is fairly safe from the government taking it away. I happen to know a small operation becoming available (not mine) if you are really interested. Not sure the asking price, has white tail, axis and black buck.

 

[mdwest]

Yep. 3rd vote for TX.

After our 1st safari we thought for a while about buying a small house and some acreage in South Africa...property is incredibly affordable there.. and we fantasized about the ability to visit often, watch the impala and wildebeest play in the front yard while we sipped morning coffee, and occasionally hunting our property or some nearby farm that would likely be larger and more diverse..

After considering that we are wanderers at heart, and really love seeing new places and experiencing new things and new people, and wouldn’t likely visit our proposed farm more than once every year or two.. and then realizing the challenges of owning such a place somewhere like South Africa or Namibia, and knowing we wouldn’t be present to deal with those challenges personally most of the time, we dropped the idea completely...

While you’re not going to get nearly as much land at nearly as good of a price in TX (or anywhere in the US for that matter), we decided we’d rather invest in a “ranch” here in the US as a retirement home... we’ll just have whitetail in the front yard to watch while sipping coffee instead of impala..and when Africa calls, we’ll go visit some of our friends we’ve made over the years, and spend some time with their impala

 

[spike.t]

I believe that there is no hunter in a world who left Africa without thought of buying a hunting farm somewhere on that continent. I know that that topic appeared many times on this forum and I read many comments coming from obviously knowledgeable people with mutual message – don’t do that! I know it’s hard, I know J. Malema is dreaming of being new Robert Mugabe, risk of taking over farms, that owning farm means less (not more) time for hunt and lot of work I even know for last week discussion in RSA about new restrictive gun law implementation…but this discussion was also hot and up to date 13 ys ago I first time visited Namibia. Very same risk exists today but I am 13 ys older. What if all those potential risks stay – potential in decades to come?

Risk & hard work – isn’t it something we are facing every day? Aren’t you working hard every day in US/EU? Don’t you have a risk of loosing a job? If you put your hard-earned buck on stock market or Bitcoin, aren’t you taking a risk of loosing it?

My point is – is there any positive experience from somebody who was brave and determined enough to replace office, concrete, boss and safety with farming at “last best place”?

What figure would you be willing to spend out of interest?...and Africa doesn't just consist of South Africa....

 

[JES Adventures]

Yep. 3rd vote for TX.

After our 1st safari we thought for a while about buying a small house and some acreage in South Africa...property is incredibly affordable there.. and we fantasized about the ability to visit often, watch the impala and wildebeest play in the front yard while we sipped morning coffee, and occasionally hunting our property or some nearby farm that would likely be larger and more diverse..

After considering that we are wanderers at heart, and really love seeing new places and experiencing new things and new people, and wouldn’t likely visit our proposed farm more than once every year or two.. and then realizing the challenges of owning such a place somewhere like South Africa or Namibia, and knowing we wouldn’t be present to deal with those challenges personally most of the time, we dropped the idea completely...

While you’re not going to get nearly as much land at nearly as good of a price in TX (or anywhere in the US for that matter), we decided we’d rather invest in a “ranch” here in the US as a retirement home... we’ll just have whitetail in the front yard to watch while sipping coffee instead of impala..and when Africa calls, we’ll go visit some of our friends we’ve made over the years, and spend some time with their impala

Selling ranch real estate in Texas is my primary business. That being said, I too have often looked into buying a farm somewhere in Southern Africa. I own a game ranch in Texas and at this point, unless I end up with a large amount of expendable income I most likely won’t be buying land there.

 

[JES Adventures]

If you really want to buy a game farm in Africa, I know one for sale in RSA. I hunted there a few years ago. The owner has been trying to sell without any luck. I guess no one wants to buy only to see the farm redistributed to others. It’s a nice operation, nice lodge, horse stables and paddocks, donkey stable, breeding operation, and large continuous exclusive hunting grounds.

I am with @Red Leg buy in Texas, at least currently your ownership is fairly safe from the government taking it away. I happen to know a small operation becoming available (not mine) if you are really interested. Not sure the asking price, has white tail, axis and black buck.

I just listed a property about an hour and a half from Austin, TX. 600 acres of Hill Country with Axis and Whitetail. Main house foreman’s house three guest cabins and barn $4.35M

 

[Hogpatrol]

Game farm in RSA? Ask the owner who spent 250k U.S. on supplemental feed during the last drought. After that, ask him how many newborn plains game he lost during that birthing season. Other than the movie theater business, I can't think of a worse investment.

If still interested, check the listings here, 144 of them.

78 South Africa Game Farms For Sale - Pam Golding Properties

Pam Golding Properties has 78 game farms for sale in South Africa. View our selection of houses, apartments, flats, farms, luxury properties and homes by our knowledgeable Estate Agents.

www.pamgolding.co.za

 

[spike.t]

I just listed a property about an hour and a half from Austin, TX. 600 acres of Hill Country with Axis and Whitetail. Main house foreman’s house three guest cabins and barn $4.35M

All that for only 600 acres....fk got nearly 8000 with game..dams you can have for that money.....

 

[curtism1234]

I'll vote for South Africa. I didn't spend much time, but a quick Google search shows you can get 67,000 acres with river for a little over 3 million. Says lion, leopard, cheetah, and rhino already on property. Lease the hunting rights for April, May, June, July, and August. You have a month or so of decent weather after that still for you to come in.

 

[JES Adventures]

All that for only 600 acres....fk got nearly 8000 with game..dams you can have for that money.....

When you have a property in close proximity to the fastest growing city in the world, prices continue to escalate. BTW I bought my first ranch in ‘93 closer to Austin for $700 per acre. It recently resold for $10K per acre.

As a country goes, I do think Zambia has a lot of merit even though the properties are on 99 year lease and not deeded land. But, you know the old saying all investments have some inherent risk.

 

[JES Adventures]

I'll vote for South Africa. I didn't spend much time, but a quick Google search shows you can get 67,000 acres with river for a little over 3 million. Says lion, leopard, cheetah, and rhino already on property. Lease the hunting rights for April, May, June, July, and August. You have a month or so of decent weather after that still for you to come in.

@curtism1234 may be on to something. Let someone else own and manage the farm, just book out there entire season and invite friends or donate some hunts to worthwhile organizations. You’ll have the benefits of ownership without the downside

 

[spike.t]

When you have a property in close proximity to the fastest growing city in the world, prices continue to escalate. BTW I bought my first ranch in ‘93 closer to Austin for $700 per acre. It recently resold for $10K per acre.

As a country goes, I do think Zambia has a lot of merit even though the properties are on 99 year lease and not deeded land. But, you know the old saying all investments have some inherent risk.

Not knocking people in SA but you couldn't pay me to put money into there ....

 

[Tanks]

I'll vote for South Africa. I didn't spend much time, but a quick Google search shows you can get 67,000 acres with river for a little over 3 million. Says lion, leopard, cheetah, and rhino already on property. Lease the hunting rights for April, May, June, July, and August. You have a month or so of decent weather after that still for you to come in.

Let's see $3 million with a modest return of 10% per annum is $300K a year. What kind of a hunt can one have for $300K each year while your principal is relatively safe? Not to mention one could spend that $300K anywhere in the world.

Also, political situation changes much faster in Africa than other places not counting the Middle East. I visited my dad's friend's farm in Rhodesia when I was 14. I loved the place. Huge house, servants, etc. etc.. I had thoughts of living in Africa when I grew up. Well, we all know what happened to the farms in Rhodesia.

 

[Serbian Hunter]

First I like to thank you all who giving so many insights in no time!
From many reasons I prefer NAM over RSA (in short: less populated (RSA is 1.5X size of NAM with 20x bigger population), better farm prices, less treat for white farmers, less criminal, cheaper life, better personal connections...). I am from Europe so TX is not an option for me. Dont believe in managing anything remotely especially in farming - in case I decide to go farming I would definitively move to NAM and live on farm adopted for hunters and other tourists willing to visit nearby Etosha and other places. Spending 250 K$ for feeding the animals during drought is valuable info only if compared with size and value of the farm. I know that as Mechanical Engineer I can make more here in Europe than as a farmer in NAM but I am considering farming as a life style so I dont have any high financial expectations. Farms I was interesting in was fully developed, size 3.000-6.000 Ha with prices around 600.000-1.000.000 Euros for 100% of farm but as a foreigner I can have up to 49% (or up to 73% in case I represent concern).

 

[sureshot375]

From an investment standpoint I don’t think it makes sense. It’s a difficult asset to manage from afar. My guess would be that you could take a fine safari every year for what you will pay in tax, utilities, salaries, maintenance, and upkeep. Not to mention the headache of having to deal with all that.

I do understand the desire though. If I had enough money to throw at something that and not care if the investment was profitable, I’d probably go for it.

 

[spike.t]

First I like to thank you all who giving so many insights in no time!
From many reasons I prefer NAM over RSA (in short: less populated (RSA is 1.5X size of NAM with 20x bigger population), better farm prices, less treat for white farmers, less criminal, cheaper life, better personal connections...). I am from Europe so TX is not an option for me. Dont believe in managing anything remotely especially in farming - in case I decide to go farming I would definitively move to NAM and live on farm adopted for hunters and other tourists willing to visit nearby Etosha and other places. Spending 250 K$ for feeding the animals during drought is valuable info only if compared with size and value of the farm. I know that as Mechanical Engineer I can make more here in Europe than as a farmer in NAM but I am considering farming as a life style so I dont have any high financial expectations. Farms I was interesting in was fully developed, size 3.000-6.000 Ha with prices around 600.000-1.000.000 Euros for 100% of farm but as a foreigner I can have up to 49% (or up to 73% in case I represent concern).

Prices sound low but never checked Namibia...and the not being 100% owner not great....who you going to partner/trust....also as I said before Africa has a few more countries as its a continent....even though some seem to think SA is Africa......

 

[Nyati]

I personally know four spaniards who have owned game farms in SA for more than 15 years, but they are living there full time.
Another friend of mine bought a farm, had a local PH take care of it, and sold it as soon as he realised it was a good business for the PH, but not for him !