Adventures of an Expat in South Africa
Our family loved living in South Africa. We loved the weather, the land, and the people. But most of all, we loved living in our beautiful home in Dainfern Valley. It's in a great location and the homes are beautiful. The 4-bedroom home featured here recently became available, and I can wholeheartedly recommend taking a close look at it if you're moving to South Africa.
Lonehill has many great things going for it. Have you ever been to the Lonehill Koppies? I had lived in Joburg for a year before figuring out that not 5 minutes from our house there was this cool nature reserve right in between shopping malls and residential areas which I believe some naturalists bill as one of Joburg's prime bird watching spots. There is more.
Reader questions and answers around South African visa requirements for retired persons. All you need to know about financial requirements for permanent residence and purchasing property in South Africa.
If you live anywhere in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg, you'll be familiar with William Nicol Drive. But who is this William Nicol the street is named after? I might not normally have been so interested - tons of street names in the world are named after people you've never heard about - but I spent so much damn TIME on William Nicol that I needed to know.
I'm not usually in the business of playing realtor (or estate agent, as they are called in South Africa) and advertising homes for rent, but I'm making an exception for this particular one. It's in the Beverley subdivision in Lonehill, a place I know fairly well as I took Sunshine to numerous playdates in the same neighborhood during our Johannesburg years.
When you’re abroad, your house or apartment is even more important for you and your family than in your home country. It may feel like the only refuge you have in this strange and foreign place that is Johannesburg. And a gain in a beautiful home you feel comfortable in can make up for the losses you may have to suffer, like leaving family and friends behind.
Joburg is a BIG city with many suburbs and neighborhoods. Finding the right one can be intimidating. It's hard to know where to start. As promised previously in Finding a House in Johannesburg: Part 1, I will now give you a list of suburbs to choose from. But first, have a look at my map. I would have loved to see a simple map like this before moving to South Africa.
In this first post of a two-part series, I'll focus on the questions you should be asking yourself as you prepare to find a place to live in Johannesburg (or anywhere in South Africa, for that matter). Should you look for your house close to work or close to the kids' school? Should you only look in security estates? Where will I get the most house for the price?
I’m only so wholesome as to disguise my spelling because I can’t remember if I signed away my rights to foul language under whatever agreement I must have entered with Blogger, and I don’t want to be reprimanded. I hate to be reprimanded. Or banned, that would be even worse, as my ...
South Africa is a gardener's dream. It's warm most of the year, but not oppressively so, which gives you the perfect weather year-round to get out there and swing your shovel. The only snag I've found with that is that people probably think I'm weird. Labor is so cheap here that almost everyone has a gardener doing this kind of work for them. In any case, here are some tips.