KNOW YOUR ’HOOD
Each week we train the Home Weekly spotlight on a South African suburb, and this time it’s the turn of Parktown – one of Joburg’s oldest and most historic areas – to take a bow
NITTY-GRITTY
• The Johannesburg suburb of Parktown was laid out in 1892 – developed by the Braamfontein Estate Company – and quickly grew into the mining town’s second posh suburb (the first being Doornfontein) as magnates built grand mansions, commanding the best views north from the Parktown Ridge. • Parktown has undergone a number of changes over the past century and more, including the construction of the Joburg General (now Charlotte Maxeke) Hospital and the insertion of the M1 highway, which bisects the suburb where it runs parallel to Oxford Road. • A number of the original Parktown mansions still remain, although many of them are no longer residential but commercial premises. Information about and tours of Parktown’s historic properties can be arranged through the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation (joburgheritage.co.za). • Parktown extends north from Empire Road to Westcliff and Forest Town, and west towards Richmond and Melville. The portion west of Jan Smuts Avenue is often referred to as Parktown West. • In addition to Charlotte Maxeke, the suburb is home to the Milpark Hospital, the Donald Gordon Medical Centre and the 93-year-old Parktown Boys High School, which has been ranked as one of the top-performing schools in Gauteng and South Africa.
IN THE MARKET
Ronald Ennik of Ennik Estates says: “We see so many beautiful modern contemporary properties in areas like Sandhurst, or clusters in Hyde Park, but you can’t replicate those Randlord houses on the ridge. When they were built they were the best sites in Joburg – they have stature, they’re dignified and rare.”
Ennik, who is now marketing a 1921 Edwardian-style “farmhouse” in Parktown, situated on more than 7 000m2 of land and with an asking price of R13.5-million, says that although strictly enforced heritage restrictions mean homeowners have to be exceedingly careful when renovating, the few Randlord-type houses in the area that do come on the market have “great proportions, are amazingly solid” and were built to last. “To own something like it is like owning a masterpiece, a work of art,” he says. He adds that ongoing inner-city regeneration, in particular in neighbouring Braamfontein, has had and will continue to have a positive impact on the future of Parktown. “People are no longer talking about the creep of deterioration, but about the creep of improvement.”
PRICE POINTS
Houses on Parktown’s smaller erven (particularly in Parktown West) without the ridge’s “view sites” or a well-known architect (such as Herbert Baker) sell for between R2.5-million and R4.5-million, says Ennik. The southern side of Parktown bordering on Hillbrow also features a number of apartment blocks, in which units go from as little as R400 000 to upwards of R3-million in older “heritage type” buildings.
Ennik says that with many of the heritage properties, owners are making strong efforts to preserve the historical features, working with the local heritage society as they make improvements. This is adding value to both the area and the properties themselves.