The four they found are all eerily similar in appearance and in the experiences reported by those who have seen and heard things while staying there…
Ashley James, co-founder of PropertyFox, says, “For those of you currently property hunting, it is worth looking out for a few tell-tale signs that the house you are viewing may be haunted: excessive amounts of sage hanging in the window is always a big clue, as is a cat watching ‘something’ invisible across the room, and a feeling that you and the person showing you the house are not alone.”
He says that whether you believe in ghosts or not, the stories behind South Africa’s most haunted houses, still make for good reading.
1. Room 10 at the Nottingham Road Hotel – KwaZulu Natal
Built in the 19th century, this hotel is home to a ghost named Charlotte, who is rumoured to have worked as a prostitute during the Boer War. Legend has it that she fell madly in love with a soldier, but her love was unrequited and she ended her life by throwing herself off the balcony of her favourite room, Number 10. She’s a particular sort of ghost and has been known to rearrange flower displays and move mirrors around to her liking. Guests who stay in her room have woken to find their clothes neatly folded and even heard her chatting to one of her many clients. Don’t believe it? We dare you to go and stay in Room Number 10 to find out!
2. The Jac Loopuyt House - Cape Town
Named after the Dutch ambassador for whom the house was built, this Edwardian residence, also known as the Rondebosch ghost house or “The Spook House”, is rumoured to have housed an evil cult in the early 1970s. Reports of doors and windows being opened and then banging shut are quite common and it has also been said that a transparent elderly man roams the grounds.
Built in 1906, Richly House has served as a nursing and maternity home, a WW2 brothel, as well as a boarding house. People have had encounters with a nun and heard the chilling cries of an unseen baby. There have also been reports of an angry former male resident stomping through the dining room and rattling pots and pans in the kitchen. Scariest of all is the ghost in the domestic quarters who reportedly tries to strangle the staff!
In the 1920s, serial killer Daisy De Melker quietly killed two of her husbands by poisoning them with arsenic at their home in Turffontein. She was hanged in 1932 and her ghost still haunts the Supreme Court in Johannesburg where she was convicted of murder. Her house in Club Street still stands and she can sometimes be seen there, peering out of her upstairs window, patiently waiting for one of her husbands to return home. Passers-by have seen the curtain moving and a ghostly figure standing at the window upstairs at around six ‘o’clock every evening!
James says that if you get a feeling the house you are interested in buying may be haunted, you are in a very good position for negotiation. “The owners may well be looking for a quick sale! So if you are okay with sharing your new home with some slightly creepy roomies, you really could land yourself a great deal…”
*Disclaimer: the information in this release was gathered via desktop research into the most frequently mentioned haunted houses in South Africa. PropertyFox acknowledges that there is an element of subjectivity in the selection of these four properties and that the ghost stories associated with them are based on hearsay rather than hard facts.
