KNOW YOUR ’HOOD
In each issue, Home Weekly brings you a closer look at a South African town or suburb. This week we’ve trained our spotlight on family-friendly northern Johannesburg suburb, Blairgowrie
NITTY GRITTY
• The northern Johannesburg neighbourhood of Blairgowrie was established in 1940 and named after the Scottish birthplace of William Rattray, who owned the larger land portion known as Craighall (which included Craighall, Craighall Park and, later, Blairgowrie — established by Rattray’s daughter). • Blairgowrie sits north of Victory Park and northwest of Craighall Park, falling between Bram Fischer Drive and Jan Smuts Avenue and bisected by Conrad Drive. • The area includes the 104-hectare Delta Park — the site of a former sewage treatment plant given over to City Parks when operations ceased in 1963. Today Delta Park is a favourite green destination for hikers, dog walkers, trail runners, mountain bikers and bird watchers (the park incorporates the Florence Bloom Bird Sanctuary). It also houses an Environmental Centre (www.deltaenviro.org.za), which runs regular education and awareness programmes for kids. Delta Park can be accessed through the main entrance on Road No. 3 or Road No. 5 off Rustenburg Road, Victory Park, or at the corner of Pitcairn Road and Penelope Avenue in Blairgowrie.
PRICE POINTS
Helen Chinyanta of Jawitz Properties says that “Blairgowrie remains fairly constant in terms of property types”, which she explains are predominantly freestanding homes with a small number of clusters and units.
The most significant change in the suburb is that together with a small price increase over the past year, it is increasingly difficult to find properties for under R1-million.
“An average entry-level price is about R900 000 for an unrenovated older house,” she says, adding that these are now hard to come by.
The upper end of the market features homes with an asking price of around R2.75-million.
“These homes would typically have been completely renovated,” Chinyanta says, with bedrooms (at least four, with a cottage) and entertainment areas added on.
ON THE MARKET
The average erf size in Blairgowrie is 850m2, with homes featuring three to four bedrooms and one to two bathrooms. Most properties have swimming pools and staff quarters, Chinyanta says, and in some cases an additional cottage.
Typical buyers are young couples or first-time buyers.
“Families with kids make up a significant component of buyers as there are good schools in the area,” Chinyanta says, such as two local government schools — Blairgowrie and Craighall Park primary schools.
Another factor that attracts buyers is the suburb’s close proximity to Sandton, Hyde Park and easy access to the CBD.
“Buyers are attracted by the idea of getting value for money. With prices ranging between R900 000 and R2.75-million you get a lot of that compared to other suburbs.”