As the N1 highway curves around just before 14th Ave it cuts right through the flack of Northcliff hill and creates a natural boundary for a little suburb called Quellerina.
Driving through Quellerina you will probably notice that ther is a mishmash of opulent mansions and more middle-class residences, often depending on where in the suburb you happen to be. To illustrate the point over the last 12 months four freehold properties were sold for between R400 000 and R800 000; 14 between R800 000 and R1.5-million and 10 between R1.5-million and R3-million.
There is probably at least one house, it’s hard to miss if you are looking up at Quellerina from the north, that is probably worth more than R3-million, but there are not too many in that range in the suburb. This sets it apart from neighbouring Northcliff, where properties routinely top out higher than R3-million.
The average cost of a freehold property is R1.45 million with sectional title properties averaging R1.27-million, making this one of the stand out suburbs where the prices of sectional title and freehold properties are in the same ballpark. Because the suburb straddles the ridge there are properties with the stunning view over the north-west of Johannesburg and others that are not as lucky.
What Quellerina has in abundance is location. Because of the way the N1 swings round the hill at this point both the 14th Ave and Gordon Road highway interchanges are a breeze to access. The shopping centres along Hendrik Potgieter are within easy reach and Cresta is just down the road. You can access the west and north without having to wait to get onto the (soon to be tolled) highways and you get all of this at much less than a house in Northcliff would cost. If you happen to work at MTN, then you are in for a real bonus, the cellular giant’s head office is just at the base of the hill and - if you could get permission - you could build a zipline to get you to the office in the morning.
It would appear that the suburb likes to hold onto its residents as upward of 20% are older than 65, with 48% of the recent buyers coming from the 35-50 year old category. This is, however, to be expected from a suburb that has a slightly higher entry level.
Educationally the strong location of the suburb comes to the fore with easy access to schools across the north-west of Johannesburg. Cliffview Primary is an easy drive as is Northcliff Primary and Laerskool Fairlands. Florida Park High School and Northcliff High are also within striking distance. However the more extreme topography of the suburb means that kids might not be too keen to cycle to school and back (if they still do that nowadays).
