Area Review : Midrand, Gauteng

Midrand is made up of several suburbs. They are Beaulieu, Carlswald, Glen Austin, Glenferness, Halfway House, Kyalami, Vorna Valley, Noordwyk, Halfway Gardens, Summerset, Blue Hills, Erand, President Park and Randjesfontein.

It’s a marvelous mix of the country and the city.

Beautiful Beaulieu is best described as Dallas – horse country on large estates. Carlswald is trendy and urban. In Glen Austin you’ll find farms, large plots and a fabulous bird sanctuary. Glenferness and Halfway House are the very neatly sandwiched suburbs between Joburg and Pretoria. Kyalami boasts that famous racing track and a well-known golf course, among other things. And finally if it’s classy estates you’re after, you’ll find them in Randjesfontein.

Midrand has seen remarkable growth over the past 10 years as many businesses have settled in the area due to its prime location and proximity to the highways and airports.

Andrew Pearse is the managing director of Platinum Residential in Midrand. Pearse has been working in the Midrand property market for almost 20 years. He believes it’s a great place to live. “Midrand is the centre of the Gauteng megalopolis, offering great accessibility to everything.” He says it’s also very “neutral” territory in that its major growth has coincided well with the New South Africa."

“Young upwardly mobile professionals of all races feel very comfortable in Midrand. With plans for Old Mutual’s R5 billion Zonki 'Zizwe retail development and other exciting developments shooting up, Midranders will also soon have one of the country’s best shopping centres on their doorstep.”

One of the downsides to living in Midrand, according to Pearse, is that the traffic lights never seem to work. “But hey, maybe that’s a national problem.”

So when the traffic lights are playing up, Pearse recommends a visit to Cappucino’s in the Carlswald Lifestyle Shopping centre for the best caffeine fix in town. He also rates Adegas in the Décor Centre as his best restaurant. On the subject of property, Pearse says that things are on the up. “This year the market has definitely improved. Many of the houses that weren’t selling in 2008 are now sold.”

Looking at prices, he says you’ll need to fork out about half a million for a two-bedroom townhouse in Midrand. That’s not too shabby by Gauteng standards in the current climate. Pearse says that an average-sized family home in Midrand will cost you between R800 000 and R2 million in the suburbs. But in upmarket estates, you can pay anything up to R8 million.

According to the South African Property Transfer Guide (SAPTG) in the full-title property market, the top sellers in Midrand during the second half of last year were: R8 500 000 in Blue Hills; R7 300 000 in Ferris Lane, Kyalami Agricultural Holding Exts; R5 700 000 in Erand Agricultural Holding; and R5 200 000 in Crowthorne Agricultural Holdings.

In the same period SAPTG recorded the following big sellers in the sectional title market in Midrand: R3 000 000 in Northslopes, Witpoort; R1 600 000 in Midstream Estate; R1 260 000 in Decotah, Kyalami Hills; and two units in Waterfall View, Vorna Valley for R1 200 000.

Pearse says that return on investment in Midrand has taken a slight knock over the past year and a half, though return on investment has consistently been above 10% with a peak of about 30% between 2003 and 2004.

On the rental front, Pearse’s experience is that this market is very buoyant but not as good as during and after the 1998 recession. “I think the big difference is that there’s still an ample supply of rental stock because there was a lot of property investment happening in the early 2000's".

He says the average rental for a two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit in Midrand is about R4500 a month.