The Gautrain will provide added impetus to the economic development of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane according to economist Chris Hart of Investment Solutions show says that businesses and property investors are investigating the property surrounding ten Gautrain stations for future investment opportunities.

With ten stations and as many as 100 000 commuters a day, analysts believe that the Gautrain will stimulate business activity and property sales.

He predicts that the stations will soon become the central point for urban planning and will directly affect the future growth of these three metropolitan areas. The Gautrain starts in Hatfield and runs through Centurion and Midrand to Marlboro where it splits and heads to Rhodesfield and OR Tambo in the east and to Sandton, Rosebank and central Johannesburg in the south.

Hart says that the nodes surrounding the stations will not only provide some commercial and retail opportunities for investors but the adjacent areas will see increasing number of office blocks being built.

His views are reinforced by property specialist, Joanie la Grange of Leapfrog in Pretoria who claims that Muckleneuk, a suburb set on the hills overlooking Pretoria and close to the Gautrain route, has attracted renewed levels of interest from people who are sick of commuting between Johannesburg and Pretoria.

She says that over the past few years some older homes in the suburb had seen prices drop by as much as 30% during the construction phase of the Gautrain but that now there prices are starting to lift again.

“Buyers were extremely scarce while the Gautrain construction phase was taking place but now that it’s virtually complete we have seen a sudden surge in interest from buyers who are looking for bargains or who simply want to change their own lifestyles,” she says.

“This is particularly true for investors who are looking for properties to buy and then rent to commuters,” she says.

Hart says that the Gautrain has been priced to attract regular commuters and as a result he expects that a great many motorists – who until now have had to drive along the clogged Ben Schoeman Highway – will move to trains.

The Bombela Concession – which will run the Gautrain for the next 15 years – believes that they will eventually carry as many as 100 000 passengers a day along the routes. Already the Sandton-OR Tambo link has seen more than a million passengers travelling on the Gautrain since it opened last year.

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