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Omeya Golf Estate becomes member of residential community Association

Omeya Golf Estate, about 30km from Windhoek is the newest member of the Johannesburg-based Association of Residential Communities (ARC).
ARC recently announced that the decision by Phakalane Golf Estate in Botswana and Omeya Golf Estate to secure membership in the Association is part of a driving initiative to apply global best practice in the management of gated residential communities in South Africa and, now, the rest of the Sub-Saharan region.
ARC assists estate managers and home owners’ associations (HOAs) on about 150 member estates in Southern Africa to apply world class procedures, systems and policies across all disciplines of residential community leadership and management.
This is based on extensive research into, and knowledge of, best practice methods applied on residential communities worldwide.
Speaking to The Economist about the benefits associated with being a member of the Association of Residential Communities, Paul Smit, CEO of Omeya Golf Estate said it is difficult to comment on the benefits of being a member of the Association because it is too early.
“It is difficult to comment on that question because we only became a member of ARC a month ago,” he said.
However, he said that they received some useful documents from the Association that has helped the Estate with its development.
“Some documents have guided us through the process towards development from a developers to home owners. I can not say anything about the benefits of having membership at this stage,” he said.
According to  Jeff Gilmour, President of the Johannesburg-based Association of Residential Communities (ARC), “A convergence of interests is beginning to develop between gated residential estates in South Africa and fast-developing countries in the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa,”
He said, the trend will gain traction as more and more gated estates are developed in Sub-Saharan Africa on the back of the region’s rapid (foreign investment-driven) economic growth, which has led to increasing urbanisation; rising incomes; and an expanding middle class.
“Together with the prestige Eden Island residential marina in the Seychelles (which joined ARC last year) Omeya and Phakalane form the core of a cross-border membership that will continue to grow,” said Gilmour
He said, the next participant may well be in Mozambique, where large infrastructural projects including the development of the country’s Tete coalfields and Pemba offshore natural gas deposits will be the catalyst for new gated estate communities.
“Oil-rich Nigeria, which already has a proliferation of gated communities, may also come into the loop,” he added.

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