It's the Saturday Open Thead. This week's topic: "Estate Agents? Yeah! or Meh."
8 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Thanks for this informative blog, we just moved to South Africa and currently living in Kenilworth on Main Road. We have rented a 4 bedroomed apartment and paying R9,250 p/m excl electricity. Since we are here for a very long term we are interested in moving into our own home, when our current lease expires in Dec 2011. We have young children in Primary sch Newlands, and work in Mowbray. As we are virtually new we are interested in moving to a safe neighbourhood where there are good primary schools (kids will change schools). Where we can convert the rent into Bond payment and maybe top-up a bit up to R13,500 p/m. Your recommendations on the likely surbubs and the house price ranges are more than welcome.
I have found that Tokai is ideal for children. People are very friendly. It is near good schools, shopping mall, Tokai MediCross, Tokai forest etc... We bought 2 years ago a 4 bedroom house with large garden and swimming pool very well secured for R3M. Unfortunately we shall be going back to the Uk 1st January 2012 and my family and i will miss Tokai so much
Thanks so much Anon 2, will definately have a look at Tokai, i dont know i was already starting to look at houses on the West Coast i cant remember what drew me there. I was looking at areas around Blourberg (Table View and Parklands) but i had seen negative comments on these areas on this blog and was wondering. but the nice thing with Tokai is that my kids wont have to move schools and transport system is there. Thanks for this
Suburban Tokai yes, anything associated with Redham and Steenberg a resounding no. Is there any other mini-suburb in the country that so actively breeds fascists? In ten minutes with a Redham mom (who lives inside the gated never-never land) I learned that Jews are in-bred, that blacks are genetically predisposed to rape, and that homosexuality is contagious. The worrying thing is that she was the second Redham Tokai mom to try to convince me of these "facts". Anyhooo.
On the property side, my latest round-up of the property websites reveals that Seeff has clearly advised sellers to drop prices below the next major hump - everything around R2.1 is now R1.95, and all the R1.7s and R1.6s are now R1.4.
Still loads of deluded nutters, though, especially among those selling flats - R2.4 for 90 m2 seems about par in KoolAid land. Nuts.
Welcome to South Africa! It's so great to have more of our brothers and sisters here from overseas! Come join our happy family and remember you are most welcome to help yourself to any facility or resource that we enjoy here. Please take a hike in our lovely National Parks, have a swim from our blue-flag beaches and of course, pay more in rent than 90% ( actual figure i read in yesterday's S. Times) of South Africans will earn in a year. I'm not bitter. I know that the free market will quickly move to provide cheap high quality housing for all!
Apart from Tokai, you might also try Simon's Town. The school's alright with a world class marine education stream and the town is very safe while the railway connection is almost certainly the safest and most reliable of the Metrorail routes. The town has also been totally ethnically cleansed so you could live there concievably and the only south africans you will meet is your domestic and the garden boy. (who live in a squatter camp about 5km away.)
If you want ANY quality of life you have to live within 6 km's of your work AND against the direction of the rush hour traffic in the morning and afternoon. So if you work in Mowbray then buy in the good part of Mowbray/Observatory or at worst, Woodstock Upper.
8 comments:
Thanks for this informative blog, we just moved to South Africa and currently living in Kenilworth on Main Road. We have rented a 4 bedroomed apartment and paying R9,250 p/m excl electricity. Since we are here for a very long term we are interested in moving into our own home, when our current lease expires in Dec 2011. We have young children in Primary sch Newlands, and work in Mowbray. As we are virtually new we are interested in moving to a safe neighbourhood where there are good primary schools (kids will change schools). Where we can convert the rent into Bond payment and maybe top-up a bit up to R13,500 p/m. Your recommendations on the likely surbubs and the house price ranges are more than welcome.
I have found that Tokai is ideal for children. People are very friendly. It is near good schools, shopping mall, Tokai MediCross, Tokai forest etc... We bought 2 years ago a 4 bedroom house with large garden and swimming pool very well secured for R3M.
Unfortunately we shall be going back to the Uk 1st January 2012 and my family and i will miss Tokai so much
Why why why
Thanks so much Anon 2, will definately have a look at Tokai, i dont know i was already starting to look at houses on the West Coast i cant remember what drew me there. I was looking at areas around Blourberg (Table View and Parklands) but i had seen negative comments on these areas on this blog and was wondering. but the nice thing with Tokai is that my kids wont have to move schools and transport system is there. Thanks for this
Suburban Tokai yes, anything associated with Redham and Steenberg a resounding no. Is there any other mini-suburb in the country that so actively breeds fascists? In ten minutes with a Redham mom (who lives inside the gated never-never land) I learned that Jews are in-bred, that blacks are genetically predisposed to rape, and that homosexuality is contagious. The worrying thing is that she was the second Redham Tokai mom to try to convince me of these "facts". Anyhooo.
On the property side, my latest round-up of the property websites reveals that Seeff has clearly advised sellers to drop prices below the next major hump - everything around R2.1 is now R1.95, and all the R1.7s and R1.6s are now R1.4.
Still loads of deluded nutters, though, especially among those selling flats - R2.4 for 90 m2 seems about par in KoolAid land. Nuts.
@ Anon 1
Welcome to South Africa! It's so great to have more of our brothers and sisters here from overseas! Come join our happy family and remember you are most welcome to help yourself to any facility or resource that we enjoy here.
Please take a hike in our lovely National Parks, have a swim from our blue-flag beaches and of course, pay more in rent than 90% ( actual figure i read in yesterday's S. Times) of South Africans will earn in a year.
I'm not bitter. I know that the free market will quickly move to provide cheap high quality housing for all!
Apart from Tokai, you might also try Simon's Town. The school's alright with a world class marine education stream and the town is very safe while the railway connection is almost certainly the safest and most reliable of the Metrorail routes. The town has also been totally ethnically cleansed so you could live there concievably and the only south africans you will meet is your domestic and the garden boy. (who live in a squatter camp about 5km away.)
none of this has anything to do with estate agents.
I have run the gamut from the amazing to some who are lower than the gum you scrape off the bottom of your shoe.
By and large they fall into the latter category.
If you want ANY quality of life you have to live within 6 km's of your work AND against the direction of the rush hour traffic in the morning and afternoon.
So if you work in Mowbray then buy in the good part of Mowbray/Observatory or at worst, Woodstock Upper.
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