Pretoria Property: Pretoria Property News and Information Blog
Let’s be honest, when looking at apartments for sale, you may just feel like reverting back to tenant status. Building levies are exorbitant, you never know what the neighbours are really going to be like (and if you buy, you’re stuck with them for 20 years, rather than for one year), and you might need more space in a year or two. More »
When your family grows or your need grows for more space at home, you don’t have to go to drastic measures to solve the problem. There’s no need to look at new apartments for sale or call in the contractors to shrink your garden so you can extend your house. Maybe there’s more space in your home than you realise – it’s just a matter of optimising it.
Here’s how:
Go open-plan
You may be surprised at how much bigger your home may look when you knock down dividing walls that separate dining room from living room, or dining room from kitchen. The divisions between living spaces can be made with folding screens, or simply dressing the dining room in one theme and the living room in another. In smaller apartments, the illusion of space is created with an open-plan setup, but the rooms are divided functionally. For instance: kitchen is separated from living room with a breakfast nook. Living room is separated from dining room with a corner couch placed with its back to the dining table.
If you do need to knock down walls, just make sure you don’t remove any load-bearing walls as this could spell disaster.
Flooring unity
A more cost effective way of making space appear out of nowhere is to extend the flooring. Don’t have a laminated floor in the passage, carpets in the bedrooms, tiles in the kitchen, and parquet in the living areas. The division creates the illusion of a bunch of separate, smaller areas. By choosing one type of flooring (laminated wood works the best for this effect) extended throughout your home, it creates that “opening up” – extending your line of sight – without the need to break down any walls.
Other tips
• Use every available nook and cranny: corner tables, bookshelves on the walls, “dead space” under staircases can all be utilised as extra space, removing a lot of clutter from existing rooms and opening them up to appear larger.
• Paint: the lighter the colour, the more light is let in and the larger the rooms appear.
• Open your curtains or install blinds, and let that natural light in for more space.
Image courtesy of: villasierravista.iowners.net
It’s all good and well to buy a new house and experience the novelty of it, but that will soon wear off unless you turn your house into a cosy, comfortable place for you. Whether you picked your new place from houses for sale in Mamelodi or mansions in Silver Lakes, it’s important to make a nest on your new branch… or it will just remain a branch. More »
Like many of Johannesburg’s townships, Mamelodi was built on the apartheid-drenched foundation blocks that separated communities based on colour and economically side-lined many people based on race. Today, Mamelodi has become an important part of Pretoria’s landscape and has established itself as a domain in its own right, even though it’s still fraught with difficulty.
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Recently, the market has come alive with property for sale in Pretoria. The Centurion Golf Estate was established in the late 1990’s with a combination of apartment and simplex living, and spacious and exclusive stand-alone homes. In the last 15 years, the Centurion Golf Estate has established itself as the sought-after place to be for discerning residents on that side of the e-Toll route, so now many buyers are looking to the estate for a quiet, secure place to go home to. The area offers an alternative to Glenvista property in Johannesburg in the much quieter surrounds of Pretoria.
The Centurion Country Club
The residential estate and Country Club are located on a 160 hectare property on which the natural surroundings have been preserved amidst the housing and golf course. The course is divided into three types of golfing terrain, including parklands, waterways, and desert-like playing conditions. It comprises 10 holes that are fairly easy to play, even for amateurs. If members don’t want to play a full round, there’s also a driving range, a large putting green, and a mashie course.
The Pro Shop is conveniently located at the Country Club and is fully stocked with all the best brand names in golfing gear. And, once you have your golfing gear in hand, it’s time to take some lessons from the professionals at the teaching academy. There are lessons for young golfers, a ladies boot camp, an introduction to golf for the newly initiated, as well as for young golfers and more advanced players.
The Residential Estate
The residential properties boast stylish architecture with a variety of styles that complement rather than clash against each other. Some properties have a lakeside charm about them, surrounded by tall palm trees and green shrubbery, while others are built in a modern farmhouse type architecture, and yet others take on Tuscan features in their neat and contemporary designs. Some of the houses have borrowed elements from Victorian architecture with neat balconies and small overhangs. This is the beauty of the Centurion Golf Estate – you won’t mistakenly enter someone else’s property thinking that it’s yours (for looking so alike), as the architecture varies in size, shape and style.
The property prices at the estate are competitively priced for property in Pretoria. For a two-bedroom, two-bathroom simplex on the top floor, the asking price is in the region of R1,3 million. For a two-bedroom, two-bathroom stand-alone house, prices start in the early to mid-R2 million range. Many of the larger residences are sprawling four- and five-bedroom houses ranging in price from R3,2 million all the way up to just under R12 million for an 11-bedroom, 11-bathroom mansion for sale.
Image courtesy of: bookyourgolf.net
We’ve landed comfortably in the middle of another beautiful South African summer, but as any green-fingered professional will tell you, the current season is the best time to start thinking about how to take care of your garden in the next season. Here is some handy advice to keep in mind for your lawn in autumn:
Did you know?
Autumn is the time when you’d expect your grass to start losing its bright green colour and going dormant for winter, but it’s actually a very busy time for your lawn, especially beneath the surface. Grass absorbs much more water and nutrients at this time to maintain its system during winter. You could help your lawn by going the extra mile now and reaping the benefits in spring.
Mow gradually lower
You might think you need to protect your lawn by not cutting it too short before the cold season, but if you cut it gradually lower – with your last mow on your mower’s lowest setting – you’ll allow sunlight to get to the grass crown and you’ll have less brown lawn in winter.
Punching holes in the soil to provide the grass roots with easier access to water, oxygen and fertiliser is best done in autumn. You can hire a special machine to do the aeration for you, or pay a contractor to sort out your whole lawn if it’s extensive.
Fertilise your lawn
Despite the slow growth above the ground in autumn, don’t underestimate the busy-ness of the roots and rhizomes below the surface. Fertilising in autumn will provide a pure injection of nutrients straight to the hungry roots and you’ll be gifted with a lush lawn in spring.
Clean up any fallen leaves
Leaves that fall from deciduous trees may give your yard that homey look, but they become a heavy mess on your lawn, suffocating the grass and inviting fungal diseases into your garden. Give your kids an allowance to rake up and crush the leaves and use the mulch for your dormant flower beds, or compost heap.
Image courtesy of:craigslawns.com
A large tract of land in Wallmansthal near the Pretoria City Centre was home to thousands of shack dwellers… until the middle of June. On 12 June 2012, the Red Ants swarmed in and tore down the residents’ shacks, as these had been erected on land that had been illegally sold or rented to the shack dwellers.
The suburbs are not what they used to be. Everywhere you look – no matter how jacked up your security – there are armed robberies and break-ins. The tighter your security, the more intense the effort on the part of the criminals. One deterrent is a well-trained guard dog for your house. Try these breeds on for size (and effectiveness):
Life is fast-paced enough as it is, so if you want to take any time off to get away, it requires planning, additional travelling expenses, making sure the pet-sitter is available – basically more time that you don’t currently have… which is why you needed a break in the first place!
The Embassy sounds like something bureaucratic and official – the kind of place you’d go to, to apply for a visa to access a foreign location. However, The Embassy Residence in Brooklyn is bound to be an icon of style and exclusivity in one of the more affluent suburbs in this part of Pretoria, bringing modern architecture home.
The ultra-modern architecture of what is sure to be the most talked about Brooklyn residence for years to come, comprises super stylish More »
Welcome to the Pretoria property blog that aims to bring you all the useful property guides and articles giving advice on common property issues and tips on hiring property professionals.
