Royal Ascot in Cape Town - anyone live there?

[StrontiumDog]

Do you know which estate?

I checked my email for u (July 2013), she said Warwick Place... not sure what time of year it's an issue. She had said the mozzies were a nightmare

 

[hj2k_x]

I checked my email for u, she said Warwick Place... not sure what time of year it's an issue. She had said the mozzies were a nightmare

OK thanks. Was going to look at a place there...

 

[dreamrobin]

Anyone know of 3 bed places in royal ascot, where pets are allowed.

 

[hj2k_x]

Anyone live close to the entrance to Birkdale Village?
Looked at a place there last night but didn't check cellphone signal. Good enough for calls but the Vodacom coverage map suggests edge only?

 

[FHTheron]

We're next to the road, few units down, don't bargain on 3G, but my previous posts tell more. Haven't tested CellC yet, but also don't really care. Next to the road the cars past at night is something you hear, but it doesn't bother you at all.

I see my ADSL got locked at 4mbps today, at least it's stable. At 7mbps it was giving lots of checksum errors, but it was faster at least.

 

[Gnome]

I'm going to propose the other side of the coin, as I see it:

Royal Ascot and all those places are
A) in the middle of an industrial zone
B) have no views
C) expensive

I don't understand what the appeal is because in terms of rent you can get a lot better in town for the same amount. I assume the properties must cost much less to buy than property in town, otherwise someone needs to explain why people are so crazy about it.

I've lived in Gardens, Tamboerskloof, Camps Bay and Seapoint and every single time, the rent is comparable to places in Milnerton in rent. Especially from those complexes. And yes I am looking at places that offer the same space and parking, etc.

Not attacking anyone, just trying to get the facts.

 

[hj2k_x]

I'm going to propose the other side of the coin, as I see it:

Royal Ascot and all those places are
A) in the middle of an industrial zone
B) have no views
C) expensive

I don't understand what the appeal is because in terms of rent you can get a lot better in town for the same amount. I assume the properties must cost much less to buy than property in town, otherwise someone needs to explain why people are so crazy about it.

I've lived in Gardens, Tamboerskloof, Camps Bay and Seapoint and every single time, the rent is comparable to places in Milnerton in rent. Especially from those complexes. And yes I am looking at places that offer the same space and parking, etc.

Not attacking anyone, just trying to get the facts.

Renting you might get more or the same elsewhere but buying definitely not.

 

[hj2k_x]

We're next to the road, few units down, don't bargain on 3G, but my previous posts tell more. Haven't tested CellC yet, but also don't really care. Next to the road the cars past at night is something you hear, but it doesn't bother you at all.

I see my ADSL got locked at 4mbps today, at least it's stable. At 7mbps it was giving lots of checksum errors, but it was faster at least.

Sounds good. Our offer to purchase is in

 

[Garson007]

Renting you might get more or the same elsewhere but buying definitely not.

This. The rent prices in Royal Ascot makes no sense. Pretty fantastic place to buy and rent out, imho.

 

[shooter_za]

I'm going to propose the other side of the coin, as I see it:

Royal Ascot and all those places are
A) in the middle of an industrial zone
B) have no views
C) expensive

I don't understand what the appeal is because in terms of rent you can get a lot better in town for the same amount. I assume the properties must cost much less to buy than property in town, otherwise someone needs to explain why people are so crazy about it.

I've lived in Gardens, Tamboerskloof, Camps Bay and Seapoint and every single time, the rent is comparable to places in Milnerton in rent. Especially from those complexes. And yes I am looking at places that offer the same space and parking, etc.

Not attacking anyone, just trying to get the facts.

It comes down to ease of access to work (quite a few people at the company I work live here too). I agree that there are much prettier places to live. But for being situated in an industrial area, its quite OK.

For me, RA is about as close as you can get to the refinery without it being a problem. I looked at places like Burgundy Estate, but the Mordor-like fumes put me off that idea real quickly.

 

[FHTheron]

Can't quite explain what exactly it is we looked for, but for a two floor, 3 bedroom, double garage stand-alone house of the same quality we only saw things at 1.5 to 2 times the price and for rent we just couldn't find something we liked. The access to the city is definitely one of the main things we looked for - without actually being in the city this is pretty good, especially the myciti bus option.

If we went by specs alone and didn't mind the deteriorating house with broken windows across the road we could get a good place with a garden, but it needed a lot of work and it didn't feel like a good investment and wasn't stand-alone. I suppose it comes down to the day to day experience and the oasis effect when walking around outside. Sometimes watching or hearing the horses running is interesting. You don't really notice the industrial zone, but we've actually found it quite useful - great prices for furniture and hardware just around the corner. And just a few minutes further (past the eye or Mordor, that flame in the refinery) is the Durbanville Wine Route

As for view, Nottingham Square and Warwick actually had great views of the ocean and sunset. Most of the other places don't have it though.

 

[hj2k_x]

This. The rent prices in Royal Ascot makes no sense. Pretty fantastic place to buy and rent out, imho.

Yup

 

[hj2k_x]

Coral Grove anyone? (who knew there were so many different complexes??)

Looks like we're going to rent before we buy. Definitely looking for a townhouse / freestanding house of some kind.

 

[hj2k_x]

Or Chestnut Ridge?

Never been inside but the location looks promising (far away from swamp/Mordor /cellphone dead zones / busy Road noise / paddocks noise.

Anyone reside there?

 

[hj2k_x]

How about The Stableyard?

The flat/househunt continues...

 

[sgs]

I used to live there until recently, so to summarise from my experience:

The "vlei" side has awesome views all the way to Blouberg. (Nottingham Sq, Warwick Place, possibly Sandown and a few others as well, I imagine). Especially the higher-up units.

The higher up, the better your cellphone reception as you can "see" the towers in Montagu Gardens / Table View. Anywhere else, very patchy because tannies with tinfoil hats (in Milnerton Ridge) take the cell companies to court every time they want to put up a tower anywhere.

ADSL from the 3rd circle onwards was feeded via a fiber "umc" box when I was there. Used to be limited to 4mbit, but seems it is now full VDSL. Up to the circle, you'll be lucky if you get stable 4mbit as you're fed straight from the Milnerton exchange via analogue lines.

HOA of the area is VERY active and have council contacts in all the right places. So things seem to get done - even if sometimes it does take a bit of time. Was also in good financial standing when I left there. For the separate complexes though you need to check the financials. Security is a large expense there, so levies can get quite high depending on the unit you're looking at - so double-check that before you sign. Few of the complexes are facebrick - maintenance expenses can be high. So check if where you are buying the complex had made provision e.g. for future painting expenses etc.

In general the area is safe. Security company takes things very seriously and they deal with issues promptly. Never felt unsafe at all - and patrol car was always a phone call away. Sub 1-minute response times were not out of the ordinary.

Also it was very quiet during "offpeak" times when the traffic dies down. Where I was I could hear the waves breaking on some nights - to give you an idea about quietness.

 

[hj2k_x]

I used to live there until recently, so to summarise from my experience:

The "vlei" side has awesome views all the way to Blouberg. (Nottingham Sq, Warwick Place, possibly Sandown and a few others as well, I imagine). Especially the higher-up units.

The higher up, the better your cellphone reception as you can "see" the towers in Montagu Gardens / Table View. Anywhere else, very patchy because tannies with tinfoil hats (in Milnerton Ridge) take the cell companies to court every time they want to put up a tower anywhere.

ADSL from the 3rd circle onwards was feeded via a fiber "umc" box when I was there. Used to be limited to 4mbit, but seems it is now full VDSL. Up to the circle, you'll be lucky if you get stable 4mbit as you're fed straight from the Milnerton exchange via analogue lines.

HOA of the area is VERY active and have council contacts in all the right places. So things seem to get done - even if sometimes it does take a bit of time. Was also in good financial standing when I left there. For the separate complexes though you need to check the financials. Security is a large expense there, so levies can get quite high depending on the unit you're looking at - so double-check that before you sign. Few of the complexes are facebrick - maintenance expenses can be high. So check if where you are buying the complex had made provision e.g. for future painting expenses etc.

In general the area is safe. Security company takes things very seriously and they deal with issues promptly. Never felt unsafe at all - and patrol car was always a phone call away. Sub 1-minute response times were not out of the ordinary.

Also it was very quiet during "offpeak" times when the traffic dies down. Where I was I could hear the waves breaking on some nights - to give you an idea about quietness.

Shot for the feedback!

We're back to renting now. Want to check the area out before committing.

Some places in Chestnut Ridge and The Stableyard to check out this coming week...

 

[shooter_za]

I've looked at a place in the Stableyard. I think it was called the Stallions? It's a single massive building with many units and underground parking. Much too crowded, felt like I was in a bunker as half your windows face into the passage way in the building. The free standing houses I have no idea about but look nice from the outside. I've started looking for free standing houses in other areas, the levies in some of these places are insane (to me at least).

 

[FHTheron]

For what it's worth, after getting some info from TelkomZA recently it seems the southern part (south of the magic VDSL roundabout) will be stuck with old slow ADSL for a long time. You can't connect to the faster exchange and the one I myself do connect to is as far away as possible. An upgrade would apparently entail digging up the road side and pulling in new cable, which probably won't be happening soon, if ever.

While this can become a horrible forum topic, I just have to say that I hope any one lobbying to keep cellphone towers away are not using cellphones at all. If not, I'd like to mention that a cellphone in weak signal means you have a stronger output signal right next to you instead of a more capable and sensitive tower some meters away. (Let's just call that an opinion without evidence for simplicity).

 

[hj2k_x]

For what it's worth, after getting some info from TelkomZA recently it seems the southern part (south of the magic VDSL roundabout) will be stuck with old slow ADSL for a long time. You can't connect to the faster exchange and the one I myself do connect to is as far away as possible. An upgrade would apparently entail digging up the road side and pulling in new cable, which probably won't be happening soon, if ever.

While this can become a horrible forum topic, I just have to say that I hope any one lobbying to keep cellphone towers away are not using cellphones at all. If not, I'd like to mention that a cellphone in weak signal means you have a stronger output signal right next to you instead of a more capable and sensitive tower some meters away. (Let's just call that an opinion without evidence for simplicity).

I can't believe there are people lobbying against it. Fools.