The suburb of Fairland is characterised as a mostly upper-income residential area, located in Northcliff.

A significant expanse of Fairland is purely residential townhouses, although sales in the area indicate that freehold homes and sectional title units are equally active in terms of sales transactions. According to deeds office data over the past two years, freehold estates have seen 222 transfers, whilst sectional titles 350.

The residents in the area are close to Cresta Shopping Centre, one of the largest malls in Johannesburg, and the area has, as a result, attracted many youngsters. Ruth Marais, area estate agent for Seeff properties, says there are a lot of young people in the area.

Estate agents jokingly refer to the area as the "tennis court area", due to the massive land surface the houses command and the large number of tennis courts. However, the luxury of owning a tennis court has recently afforded investor-driven individuals another luxury – great returns on investments (ROI). ROI are realised as homeowners are now subdividing their land and selling parts of it for sectional title developments or for other freehold estates.

Marais adds that the massive plot sizes, anywhere in the region of 3,000 sq m, are highly priced. First-time buyers and investors alike cannot afford such high demands on their capital-outlays. Nevertheless, young investors are taking advantage of the lower priced clusters and townhouses, which do "have good returns for investors", according to Marais.

According to deeds office data the average house price in the area over the past two years was R1,43m.

FNB Homeloans and asset finance company WesBank, both subsidiary companies of the FirstRand Group, will be moving to a new R1bn office development being undertaken by RMB Properties in Fairland.

RMB Properties recently said that work was "progressing well" on the 74,000 sq m office development, which adjoins RMB's Worldwear Shopping Centre in Beyers Naude Drive, Fairland.

RMB Properties marketing director Hugh Basel said the new development was "in essence two separate buildings with a communal facility in-between, joining the two buildings".

Another factor for the decision to develop offices in Fairland was that a large portion of the businesses' staff lived in that area. Basel said the office complex had to be developed because there were no premises of that size in the Fairlands area.

MB Properties expects the office development will bring additional foot traffic to the shopping centre. – James Monteiro

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