South Africa

New luxury resort in South Africa to open bookings soon

Kirsten Minnaar • 8 May 2025

Construction on a new R2 billion luxury resort, Club Med South Africa Beach and Safari, is well underway, with bookings set to open in the next few months.

The French travel operator Club Med has over 70 all-inclusive resorts worldwide, including in Italy, the Maldives, France, and Thailand. Globally, a week’s stay for a family of four at Club Med averages between R75,000 and R380,000.

Now, a new luxury resort is being built on the North Coast of KwaZulu-Natal, 20 minutes from King Shaka International Airport and a short drive from Ballito.

Club Med South Africa will be the first Club Med to offer a dual location with both beach and safari. It will also welcome the first Club Med Surf School in the world.

The project is funded by South African debt funders and equity partners under Tinley Leisure, backed by African Bank, the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), Tinley Leisure Women’s Investment Group, Collins Residential, and Absa.

Tinley Leisure’s development director, Chris du Toit, previously told Daily Investor that the investment consortium comprises South African partners who have invested more than R2 billion in Club Med South Africa’s development.

The Development Manager, Collins Residential, has been working closely with the Club Med team to curate a carefully choreographed construction strategy.

Rather than handing the entire project over to a single large contractor, Collins Residential has taken a more innovative and varied approach.

“We broke this site down to first principles,” Du Toit said. “Instead of going the traditional route and appointing the whole development to one or two contractors, we’ve divided the project into multiple packages.”

He explained that this allowed them to maintain control, adapt to conditions on the ground, and focus on the skills that each contractor excels at. As a result, they are able to build stronger relationships with teams on-site.

The construction process

Collins’ multi-faceted model splits the build into seven major construction packages, ranging from civils to hotel blocks and luxury villas to infrastructure, staff housing, and resort amenities.

Each package is assigned to a specific contractor team through a rigorous selection process based on credentials and expertise. It is also primarily based on who would be present on-site day to day.

“Our model allows us to adapt, pivot, and hold each contractor accountable in real-time,” du Toit said. “While it’s a more involved approach from our side, it’s how we believe we can best protect the integrity of this project”.

The resort site spans two hills, with planned access routes that ensure work continues even in the face of disruption.

“We are under very tight and strict deadlines with Club Med global for delivery – if you imagine 1,000 foreign guests arriving on opening day, we can’t very well send them packing back to Europe because the resort isn’t ready.”

Club Med will open its worldwide reservations in September this year, some 10 months before the actual opening. “We simply have to be ready.”

The site is in full swing, with all seven contracts underway. In April, the project topped out on its labour numbers, with some 1,400 people currently working there every day.

Bulk services, including the roads, dam, water pipework and permanent electrical supply with 3km of cabling, will all be completed shortly.

Village and Hotel accommodation is already built to roof height, with the first layers of paint applied, and internal fit-outs are soon to commence.

At the same time, the resort amenities like the Convention Centre, Kids Club, family pool, sports facilities, Beach Club, and staff accommodation for 200 people are currently on track and underway.

Across the sit,e large-scale planting and irrigation have been initiated, giving the resort its first touches of landscape design.

“The multi-contractor approach taken for this project gives us flexibility and accountability. If we’d handed the full build to a single entity, we’d be locked into their timeline and process.”

“Instead, we’ve scaled systems in line with site activity – from contractor check-ins to health and safety management,” du Toit explained.

According to Murray Collins, CEO of Collins Residential, the focus has been on local labour integration through the inclusion of a formal Community Forum from the outset.

The forum includes ward councillors, a local traditional leader and the client to oversee recruitment across the three surrounding Wards. “We’re investing in the local economy and people,” Collins said.

“Our contractor teams are supported by strong local labour with many of the labourers sourced from within 10 km from site, and every package has clear targets for community involvement.”

Construction began in March 2024, and momentum is high, with over 1,400 people currently onsite. This project’s timeline has been reverse-engineered from a shared completion date, meaning all packages need to land together.

“With the progress made on site to date, we’ve now reached a stage where the rhythm of work is syncing across the site,” Collins said. “It’s exciting to see how everything is starting to take shape”.

“Every decision we’ve made has been about intent. This isn’t just about construction – it’s about legacy, innovation, and doing things the right way.”