“Plant trees you will never see.”
Hi, I am Richard Arderne, Franchisee and Principal of Pam Golding Properties - St Francis Bay. I was born and brought up in Walmer, Port Elizabeth and with many visits to the Kromme and St Francis in the 1960’s. After St Georges, then St Andrews in Grahamstown, a gap year in Holland, I graduated in 1980 with a Stellenbosch Civil Engineering Degree. Then the Navy for two years, and my registration as a Professional Engineer in 1985, working on a motorway in Glasgow. In 1986 I moved into property development, including a stint as director of Faircape Property Developers, in Cape Town. In 2001, I joined Peter Golding at Pam Golding Commercial, starting a new business unit, in UK commercial property syndications.
I was fortunate to marry Jane Purdy in 1985, whose parents bought in St Francis in 1970, so all our holidays were spent here. Jane has been a very successful artist, and co-owner of Bug Zoo Children’s Clothing from 1993 to 2003. We had three sons whilst living in our home in Llandudno, Cape Town for 17 years, where I tried hard at surfski paddling. I was tolerated on the Llandudno Squash Club committee for many years and likewise on the Llandudno Primary School committee.
In 2005, I purchased the Pam Golding Properties St Francis Bay franchise. Pam Golding had been run by the previous franchisee in the old Village Centre, but I found an ideally situated new premises at the entrance to St Francis, opposite the St Francis Links entrance and have been there ever since (and we are now the owners).
Pam Golding Properties is by far the longest established of all the St Francis Bay estate agencies, first opening in 1995. We have been fortunate to have achieved the leading market share over the last few years, largely through our focus on exclusive mandates.
It made sense to use my love of sport and the outdoors as our primary marketing tool, as St Francis has so much to offer which we want to share. One is not merely selling a house, but a lifestyle and sport and the outdoors are very much part of our lifestyle. Organising, sponsoring and participating in events means a lot to our business as these events bring feet into St Francis, especially during the quiet times. We have been very involved in many sports and sports events: paddling/surfski, surfing, squash, quadrathlon, swimming, MTB, golf, windsurfing, and kiteboarding, running ... even a little tennis/bowls/fishing.
I am fortunate to have the support of my wife, Jane and the sales team of Lois Fox, Saria Blaaw, Johan Viljoen, Dot Stuart-White and Alastair Stuart-White, as well as Krystal Scott who runs the holiday rentals. Leandie Terblanche is our enthusiastic office administrator, plus Gerald Claasen and Pretty Ndlovu keeping the property shipshape!
We work hard whilst having fun, enjoying what we do, with a healthy outdoors lifestyle. We also try to do our best for those less fortunate, including the animals in our community.
After first renting a front row home overlooking Hulett’s Reef, we bought a home in Cape St Francis. Three years later we sold and moved to the canals, where we built a home with canals on both sides! And then in 2018, we built again, this time on the Links. And yet again in 2020, we bought on the front row in Santareme!
Our three sons really enjoyed Woodridge School and St Francis, wakeboarding, surfing, kiteboarding, and enjoying all aspects of the St Francis lifestyle. They all followed me to the Stellenbosch engineering faculty, and are now working overseas, but we hope they return to South Africa one day!
Please let’s have a chat about your property needs.