Steyn City resort to be largest in Africa
More than 11 500 jobs created
A MASSIVE multibillion-rand lifestyle resort, which has planning approval for up to 10 000 residences and will have in excess of 25 000 residents and resemble a mini-city when fully developed, is springing up north of Fourways in Johannesburg.
The Steyn City Lifestyle Resort is being developed on an 800 hectare site, of which half will remain parkland.
Steyn City Properties, the developers, said it was six times the size of Sandton City and the largest development of its kind on the African continent.
It has been planned over the past eight years and is the vision of Auto & General founder Douw Steyn and his partner, Steyn City Properties chief executive Giuseppe Plumari.
Kent Gush, the head of sales for Steyn City Properties, said it would probably be developed in about six phases and take about 20 years before it was fully developed.
Gush said more than R2.5 billion has already been invested in the resort during the first phase. This figure was set to increase to more than R50bn in the second phase.
Gush said investments made to date included R120 million in each of the gatehouses; R180m in the golf course clubhouse and gymnasium; and R100m in the 18-hole Jack Nicklaus designed golf course.
The developers also contributed R300m, representing a third of the cost, to upgrade and expand the R511 William Nicol Drive and arterial roads.
A number of public-private partnerships entered into between Steyn City Properties and the government for the construction of new roads, sewerage, water and other basic services had direct and positive socio-economic benefits for the neighbouring communities of Diepsloot and Cosmo City, with more than 11 500 jobs created.
Plumari said they were working with the government to extend William Nicol Drive through to the N14, which was already under way.
“We have given a commitment that once specific volumes are reached, we will further partner with government for additional infrastructure upgrades,” he said.
A city centre, featuring a selection of restaurants, retail and commercial outlets plus 700 apartments and 2 000 parking bays, is under construction and scheduled to open in 2018, while construction on a 15 000m convenience centre and school was expected to commence within the next four months. Eight office blocks are also planned.
Other planned facilities include a retirement village and medical facility plus an array
More than R2.5 billion has already been invested in the resort during the first phase.
of recreational, fitness facilities.
The first phase of the development resulted in the completion of 93 apartments and 19 cluster homes, with further
health
and clusters to be built off-plan.
Six show homes have been completed and 220 of the freehold stands released on to the market, which will go on sale from Saturday.
There are a variety of residential options, with one, two and three bedroom apartments priced at R1.65m up to R3.9m. Twenty-five ultra luxury 350m apartments will cost R13.9m each. The cluster homes are mainly 350m2 four-bedroomed units and are priced at between R6.2m and R8.4m. Freehold stands alongside the golf course or with river frontage range in size from 800m to 1 300m2 cost R2.3m, with 4 000m2 fairway and river frontage stands going for between R12m and R16m.
Jacques du Toit, a property analyst at Absa Home Loans, said any group that took on such a project had to be aware of affordability issues.
However, Du Toit said it could be expected that people would become wealthier over time and they would like to move into such developments as they got wealthier and their aspirations changed.
Du Toit said many lifestyle centres had sprung up over the years in the major metro centres and the demand for them had always been there.
There was no reason why this would change.
Du Toit said these developments were “new cities” that were being created, this was the direction in which the residential market was moving and it was doubtful that these trends could be redirected.
John Loos, a household and property sector strategist at First National Bank Home Loans, said the estimated 20year period to fully develop the estate was plausible and Gauteng’s economy could double in size in this period, which meant there could also be substantially more wealthy people.
Loos said these types of developments had a big impact on the future design of Johannesburg and created new cities on their own rather than a higher density future city along stateof-the-art transport corridors. He said Steyn City was indicative of confidence in the future.