These Cape Town flats separate the men from the playboys.

They are so expensive that some owners won't let anybody in. And so rare, they can be found nowhere else but on a stretch of road that's only a few hundred metres long – on the lower side of the road that is, not the upper.

If there were any for sale right now, you could pay up to R50 million for one, and live with the fact that only a few kilometres away, something very similar would cost you only R7 million. 

They're a bit of a Cape phenomenon, these mega-flats. They hover between the earth, the sea and the sky and for those who've got the ready, they are a must-have, a demonstration of wealth so extreme that nothing less will do.

And they are all to be found between Second Beach and the Clifton border with Bantry Bay, along Victoria Road as it heads from Sea Point to Camps Bay. They are priced at R50 000 to R80 000 a square metre and there are probably no more than 14 blocks that could be said to fall into this exalted category.

It's quite a jump up for a little seaside suburb that was known only for its silky sand, tiny municipal bungalows and the long, weary climbs from the beach to the very limited parking on the road. Now, while the bungalows change hands for cellphone numbers, the flats that have been redeveloped or sprung up new from the sites of lesser buildings, are a fiercely guarded enclave of exclusivity, protected by prices beyond the means of common folk.

Estate agent Denise Dogon who is a major player in the movement of the market in this area – she holds a record for the highest price house sale 'in excess of R40 million' – describes the environment as 'God-made privilege. Very limited.'

Denise believes in the old 'position' adage when it comes to property value, but when pushed for a closer analysis of the Clifton market she says it has to do with the uninterruptible view on the lower side of the road, the sunsets, which people are apparently mad about, and then the fact that the wind doesn't blow. On a howling day in late spring with the Cape Doctor dispensing mega-doses of high-speed flying debris to the lesser suburbanites of the Peninsula, she makes a point.

So, the very rich are prepared to pay R50 million for 300 square metres or so of marbled floor, a private pool on the rocks, a view of the ocean, and up to three parking bays. Why, then, in the middle of one of the most beautiful inner cities in the world, can you have something that offers the same sort of accommodation, high levels of finish, a private pool and not only one view, but 360 degrees of heart-stopping stuff that includes Table Mountain in your face, Lion's Head and a clear-day outlook over the better part of the Cape Peninsula – for R7 million?

Well, it seems it has to do with space. Not that there's a lot of it between Table Mountain and Duncan Dock, but enough, to allow sufficient new development to prevent the price of residential property in the City Bowl from reaching the celestial highs of Clifton.

But it does give hope to those locals with less to spend on their dream home, or foreigners with fewer dollars. In Bree Street, just off centre of Cape Town's CBD, there's a building called Manhattan Centre housing a selection of loft-like spaces that contrast their luxurious interiors with the edgy, slightly industrial tone of the public and access areas of the building. Once inside the penthouse, only the multi-metres of glass sheets, rising through three levels, separate you from a cross-city vista, and looking back towards the west, Table Mountain looms benignly.

For R7 million this 300 square metre apartment offers two bedrooms with their own bathrooms, a pool deck overlooking the city, an under-cover rim-flow pool and a main bedroom with a translucent glass floor that can be back-lit at night. The clear glass shower room has a spectacular view over the city and the kitchen hides behind a mirror-polished metal surface on the lowest floor. The treads of the staircase emerge apparently unsupported from the wall as they climb to a softly moulded mezzanine floor from where one steps down into the guest bedroom, and upward to the main bedroom with its adjacent wooden pool deck. There's too much to take in at one visit and one's inclination is to beg for seconds.

Dogon's agent Fabio Bonafeche shows a group of buyers round the place with obvious enthusiasm. When he switches on the bedroom floor, there's a squeak of amazement from one of the women, amused at the sheer extravagance of it. She is clearly enchanted.

Perhaps the lady will settle for the fluorescent floor, rather than raid her piggy bank for the extra R43 million she would have to pay for the privilege of Victoria Road, Clifton.

By Neill Hurford (property24.com)