Lombardy East is a pretty little working class suburb with an unfortunate location problem. And in the real estate game where the phrase location, location, location is the eternal mantra this is more than a small problem.
The problem in question is the proximity of the suburb to Alexandra. With one side of the suburb butting up against Alex, and bordering the notorious London Road prices in the suburb are well below what you would pay for an equivalent house in most other Johannesburg suburbs.
Although most of the houses in the suburb are in relatively good condition and the streets are clean the average selling price for a freehold property was R845 000 over the past 12 months. Considering that most of the houses have three bedrooms and many have two bathrooms as well, it is clear that its location has had a severe impact on house prices in the area.
That said, one man’s security risk is another man’s bargain and for those buyers looking to be close to the family and friends in Alex the prices in Lombardy East could be a real bonus.
One issue that the sale statistics do expose is that the 50 percent of recent sellers have owned their properties for less than five years. In a suburb that has a high percentage of sectional title developments this is to be expected but with over 95 percent of properties in Lombardy East freehold this is a significant anomaly.
The age profiles of recent buyers is, however, exactly what one would expect in this suburb with a spread of buyers across the 18 to 35 and 36 to 50 year old brackets.
If you can get past the security issues then Lombardy East does offer some benefits. Access to the N3 highway is a breeze, Sandton is close by, as is Rosebank and Illovo. It is possible to access Greenstone mall and even get to the airport with relative ease. The Gautrain station at Malrboro is also quite close.
From a schooling perspective the best options are probably across the highway in Edenvale, but there is a primary school in neighbouring Rembrandt Park and a smattering of private schools in the area as well.