Which Apartment to purchase? There flat in Midrand or Centurion?

[Grant]

You want to pay HALF A MILLION RAND for a 1 bedroom flat?

interesting


i was thinking - where the hell does one manage to find a 1 bedroom flat for half a million ?

 

[Mila]

Close to what in lyttleton? If it is closer to the airbase you can travel back roads. It's quieter, I drive from PTA east to the reeds daily, and the back road is a breeze. Just keep in mind that you will drive past a high school. It takes me 20-30 minutes to get over the r21 in the morning and from there 15-20 minutes to about the mall @ reds.

I will be going that way tomorrow morning and check out the traffic. I think the only big traffic thing will be from old JHB you turn right onto wierda drv , when I drive back in the evenings we tend to sit there for a bit , not very long but it can be a delay. Only 4 cars can turn.

Will have a look and tell you tomorrow.

 

[Mila]

Oh by the way congrats! Is this your first property?
Is it those beautiful grey and red apartments close to the mall? Everyday when I pass there I think: now if I was single that is where I would stay.

I work from a guy's house and they have had only a bit of petty crime. The kids bikes were stolen and the radio from his lapa.
I would not be able to speculate on the crime in midrand.

Maybe ask the agents what they think is the market for people that want to hire in each area?

I'm sure both will be great as both is set up towards young people and young families.

 

[Mila]

So this morning at 7:15 there was heavy traffic on the following routes:

Hendrik Verwoerd To old JHB Road.

Jhb Road from before the hennops river bridge right onto Wierda Drive up to Ashwood Drive. This is only if you are closer to the airport.

Maybe that helps. enjoy the new apartment.

 

[Sly21C]

So I viewed the apartment on show in Rooihuiskraal North on Saturday. The showroom apartment looked very good. After I viewed the showroom apartment the agent mentioned that the 1 bedroom that's available has already been built, she also told me I can't go inside to view it because she doesn't have the key. She did however show me where it is so I can look at it from the outside. So I went there and saw it, I stood at the walkway balcony next to the entrance door and loved the view, it's spectacular.

The apartment is on the top floor by the way. I opened the door to see if it is really locked and it wasn't. I went inside and noticed cracks on the walls in the kitchen. There were a lot of cracks, but they were not severe and were not structural cracks. I then wondered to myself, "why did she tell me the flat is locked when it wasn't?" I also wondered "why is she selling me this apartment that's already built whereas buying off plan is how the company she represents operates?". I concluded that people haven't bought it because of the cracks on the walls. The other apartments are all occupied, I could tell because they all had curtains on their windows.

Long story short, I decided not to purchase it, unless ofcourse they sell it to me for R50k less or something.

So I'm now in the process of purchasing the Midrand apartment. I took a drive to the area and my unit is still being built.

Where are your family and friends?
How why doesn't the commute to and from work matter?

For me that that would be a killer! Job wise I moved from Midrand to Kyalami and took my daily commute from 2.30hrs per day to under 1.30hrs - and I save R700.00 on fuel. Feels like I won the lotto

I don't consider friends and family when I move, it all depends on the location of where I work. If I decide to stay in Midrand, it would take me about 15 to 30 minutes depending on traffic.

Yea, i cant comment too much on residential areas in midrand, but the rooihuiskraal to lyttelton route in centurion is a clusterf$&@. I sometimes travel from lyttelton to say the big pnp / mr price (and that is before old jhb rd). There is only 2 SINGLE lane roads going there (lenchen and verwoerd) , and i always, always get stuck on them if i travel towards rooihuiskraal in the afternoon or towards lyttelton in peak hours. The alternative is old jhb / samrand via highway , the highway is fine, getting onto it via old jhb or out of rooihuiskraal is the bigger problem. The r101 (old jhb) is also one of the more frustrating roads to be on in the centurion area, i hate it with a passion....again it is constantly turning into single lanes with major bottlenecks all the time.

The entire section from centurion mall to old jhb towards mall at reds sometimes looks worse than fourways (witkoppen/rivonia/wiliam nicol) to me...purely becuase of the poor access roads.

I myself luckily live in lyttelton, and i can only suggest you consider area with better access routes, such as lyttelton. I can hop onto the n14,n1 and r21 within 5 minutes , and then there is the gautrain station.....i wouldnt consider the gautrain viable living in rooihuiskraal tbh...

+1

Rooihuiskraal's traffic situation is terrible.

Oh by the way congrats! Is this your first property?
Is it those beautiful grey and red apartments close to the mall? Everyday when I pass there I think: now if I was single that is where I would stay.

I work from a guy's house and they have had only a bit of petty crime. The kids bikes were stolen and the radio from his lapa.
I would not be able to speculate on the crime in midrand.

Maybe ask the agents what they think is the market for people that want to hire in each area?

I'm sure both will be great as both is set up towards young people and young families.

Nope, the apartments doesn't have a red color on them.

Yeah it's my first apartment. Thanks for the update and advice, really appreciate it

 

[ice_cubes]

agents are crooks

 

[Raphael123]

I do not know about you but my criteria is the following

1. Distance to the closest Telkom Exchange.
2. Travel time to work (take note, not distance but travel time)
3. Which municipality you will be working with and who is more efficient.

The above and Midrand seems to have issues with the electricity, with winter coming brace yourself for many power outages if you in Midrand. No like one of the replies above you could not even pay me to live there.

 

[Nicodeamus]

The cracks indicate dolomite, waterkloof airbase area is full of dolomite. I won't take a property there even if you give it to me for free.

 

[ToxicBunny]

I would be wary of a newly built place having cracks... it indicates issues.

If that place has cracks, I can guarantee you shortly that all the other apartments in the building will have cracks soon as well.

 

[Nicodeamus]

I would be wary of a newly built place having cracks... it indicates issues.

If that place has cracks, I can guarantee you shortly that all the other apartments in the building will have cracks soon as well.

I always check for polyfilla on the wall and a newly painted wall, you can spot it if you look carefully.

 

[Rocket-Boy]

I prefer to be on the top floor myself, insurance is cheaper and you dont run the risk of having noisy people above you.
I once stayed in a place where I swear the people above me dropped everything they picked up. It got really annoying.

 

[satanboy]

I prefer to be on the top floor myself,, insurance is cheaper ....

wtf , I've never heard of this.

 

[Sly21C]

I decided to say "screw it" and to go ahead and purchase the Midrand apartment. Nothing is perfect, and if I wait for something perfect then I might wait forever

The above and Midrand seems to have issues with the electricity, with winter coming brace yourself for many power outages if you in Midrand. No like one of the replies above you could not even pay me to live there.

I didn't think about the reliability of electricity. I know Centurion is pretty reliable.

The cracks indicate dolomite, waterkloof airbase area is full of dolomite. I won't take a property there even if you give it to me for free.

It's not dolomite in this case, the cracks weren't structural as far as I can tell. But I agree with you that the Centurion area has a dolomite problem. I recall Jean Avenue being closed for about 8 months because the road developed a sink hole.

I prefer to be on the top floor myself, insurance is cheaper and you dont run the risk of having noisy people above you.
I once stayed in a place where I swear the people above me dropped everything they picked up. It got really annoying.

That's what I'm going through right now, the tenants above always drop something or there's something always moving. Annoying indeed!

 

[ArchieChoke]

I decided to say "screw it" and to go ahead and purchase the Midrand apartment. Nothing is perfect, and if I wait for something perfect then I might wait forever



I didn't think about the reliability of electricity. I know Centurion is pretty reliable.



It's not dolomite in this case, the cracks weren't structural as far as I can tell. But I agree with you that the Centurion area has a dolomite problem. I recall Jean Avenue being closed for about 8 months because the road developed a sink hole.



That's what I'm going through right now, the tenants above always drop something or there's something always moving. Annoying indeed!

Yeah electricity is bad, once a month your power will go off, for a day or two.
Then there's the water disconnects without notifications.


Top floor is cool, but stairs is a pain in the backside(I live 4th floor), but the whole hearing what people do is still available top floor.Someone in our section must have weights, one day someone at 6am sunday morning hammering something into the wall, 7am someone smacking the broom against the wall. Basically I still hear pretty much everything that happens.

 

[Fuma]

I decided to say "screw it" and to go ahead and purchase the Midrand apartment. Nothing is perfect, and if I wait for something perfect then I might wait forever

Did you find out how much the levy and rates are?
You'll be surprised how much people are paying on levies.

 

[MickeyD]

I spent quite some time in an Amberfield complex near Mall@Reds. Would leave home at around 6h10 each morning, drive past the Mall and straight down Hendrik Verwoerd Drive and then either via the R101 or Gerhard/Botha Ave towards the city centre. Traffic was cool... until we got to the station area!!!

 

[mjkelly]

The cracks indicate dolomite, waterkloof airbase area is full of dolomite. I won't take a property there even if you give it to me for free.

I would be wary of a newly built place having cracks... it indicates issues.

If that place has cracks, I can guarantee you shortly that all the other apartments in the building will have cracks soon as well.

Surely these are extreme opinions? Often the plastering and painting is rushed, causing cracking. Not always the end of the world, but sure, not ideal.

Did you ask what the levies were for the Rooihuiskraal 1 bed?

 

[ToxicBunny]

If it's a stable location it would be indicative of rushed finishing work... In a place known for having dolomite issues I would treat it is indicative of structural issues that are starting to surface...

 

[Galactica]

Centurion.Dont stay in Midrand and no offence to anyone here but when i stayed there i hated it.The traffic sucks because there is only complex after complex with 2 cars for each household thereby creating a huge traffic problem in and out of Midrand.

Is Kyalami also bad with regards to traffic and power outages?

 

[TJ99]

Is Kyalami also bad with regards to traffic and power outages?

It's part of Midrand, so yes.