Radiokop, in north-west Johannesburg, gets its name from the Sentech installation that sits almost in the centre of this suburb. With street names like Amplifier, Stereo and Frekwensie, its clear that the town planners took their dedication to the theme very seriously indeed.
Radiokop used to sit right on the periphery of Johannesburg (or Roodepoort if you want to use the old terminology) but with the developments in the Honeydew Ridge and Honeydew Manor and Eagle Canyon, it is rapidly being surrounded by new developments.
Most of the developments inside Radiokop are now well established and the suburb itself is looking more established.
With more than 75% of the suburb comprising of sectional title properties this is one of the defining features of the suburb with only 17% freehold and the remaining 7% in estates. Average selling prices for sectional title properties has increased incrementally over the last few years from R387 000 in 2004 to R701 000 in the first six months of 2011.
Freehold properties, on the other hand, have roughly doubled from R583 000 in 2004 to just over R1-million in 2011. The suburb is also a relatively young one with most of the buyers (60%+) coming from the 18 – 35 year old bracket. Of the stable owners the 36 -49 year old bracket dominates with 45% of stable owners in this category.
Interestingly almost 40% of the recent sellers have owned their properties for less than five years, indicating that there is reasonably high-turnover of units or, more likely, that there was a high number of people buying properties as an investment and now that the worst of the dip is out of the way are looking to consolidate their portfolio. From a facilities point of view Radiokop is pretty well positioned with Northgate in one direction and Clearwater Mall in the other as well as a Makro on its doorstep. Wilgeheuwel Hospital is inside the suburb, a boon for those needing medical attention.
Education-wise the suburb has access to a wide variety of private and government schools. Charter House is in the suburb and Agape and Curro Aurora are within easy reach. Panorama, Weltevreden Park and Constantia Kloof Primary schools are all within 3 km of the suburb and Allen Glen High School is less than a km from some parts of the suburb.
With Christian de Wet forming the one border of the suburb there are properties that are going to have more traffic noise than others, but on the whole the suburb is reasonably quiet.