Category: Housing & Suburbs

*** Update: This house is no longer available for rent. ***

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 ... 

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Moving to Johannesburg anytime soon? If you are, you are probably looking for a house. This can be more difficult than you think.

When Noisette and I, the accompanying spouse – who later became the Glamorous ExpatWife –  had gone all the way to South Africa on a house-hunting boondoggle one  ... 

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Joburg is a BIG city. There are lots and lots of areas and neighborhoods, and finding the right one for you can be intimidating, to say the least. 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 this map. I would have loved to see a simple map like this before moving here, as it will go a long way towards giving you an idea where things are, not just for house-hunting but all sorts of other purposes. Like finding out where in the world your daughter’s netball match will be (even if you have no idea WHAT in the world netball is). Just remember that the map isn’t everything, because it doesn’t show TRAFFIC. What looks close isn’t necessarily so.  

Map courtesy of privateproperty.co.za

  Ok, getting to the actual suburbs: The following is what I wrote for the website Expat Arrivals about Areas and Suburbs in Johannesburg, listing them all going from North to South. (You should definitely visit Expat Arrivals as it is an excellent resource for expats getting their bearings in South Africa.)

Midrand
Including Waterfall, Kyalami
Technically Midrand might not count as a Johannesburg suburb as it is so far removed, but especially in the last few years it has become a popular area to live, offering affordable housing set in wide open ... 

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If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you will know that I’ve already posted several times about living in the Dainfern area, which it is probably safe to say is one of the prime expat locations in Johannesburg.

But writing a more comprehensive guide to living in Joburg that compares the different suburbs in a less biased way had been on my agenda for quite some time. Except I mostly procrastinated writing it, because I felt I didn’t know enough about Joburg. Writing your own blog is great, but meeting deadlines is not one thing you’ll get good at, because, well, there aren’t any deadlines. I got the much-needed kick in the pants to finally deliver my “guide to accommodations in Joburg” from the folks at another website, Expat Arrivals, for whom I’d written several articles before, and what you’ll now read here is an adapted version of what was published on their website a few weeks back. To read the original article, please visit Expat Arrivals. In this first post of this two-part series, let’s focus on the =&0=& as you prepare to find a place to live in Johannesburg (or anywhere in South Africa, for that matter). Tomorrow I’ll elaborate on the actual suburbs of Johannesburg. Size

What size house will you be looking for? Are you expecting plenty of ... 

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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 ... 

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One of the most annoying things about becoming an expat is having to learn certain things from scratch. Like what kind of fish to buy. Which cut of meat you need when you’re looking for flank steak. And the names of the plants around you.

I thought this being spring would be a good time to tell ... 

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