Sandringham is one of those quintessential suburbs in Johannesburg. Sitting on its eastern fringes with a strong Jewish community it always feels like it is larger than it actually is. The suburb is bordered by George Street in the north and Club Street and Sandringham High School in the east with Huddle Park Golf Course and its adjacent parklands in the south. This makes Sandringham a lush, park-like environment and even though it close to some fairly large roads.
Part of the attraction of Sandringham is that its location makes it a good jumping off point for both the central Johannesburg areas like Rosebank and Sandton as well as for eastern areas such as Edenvale and Bedfordview.
As with many suburbs with a strong Jewish community, the population of Sandringham is skewed towards the older end of the spectrum, with almost 20 percent falling into the 65 years and older category. Also more than 20 percent of recent sellers come from this category, but with a relatively low turnover of houses, 12 sold in 2011 and 17 in 2010, this is unlikely to affect the overall demographics of the suburb in the near term.
Bargain-hunters look to be out of lock in the suburb as none of the houses sold in the last 12 months were below R800 000 and only 2 were above R1.5 million. This means that the average selling price for this year of around the R1.2 million is right on the mark. It is also right in line with the average municipal valuation for the suburb.
The benefits of Sandringham are that not only is it a well established suburb, but a quick shot down George street brings you to Louis Botha Ave, and from there it is relatively simple to access the Norwood Mall, Grant Ave and to drive onward to Rosebank with the Mall and The Zone. The recent decision to route the Reya Vaya bus system down Louis Botha means that access to public transport should be much better in the near future.
Going east George Street links directly to Modderfontein Road, providing easy access to the N3 highway and pas the highway Greenstone Mall is right there. It is safe to say that it is pretty easy to access most of the north and east of Jo’burg without having to go too far out of your way. If you want to go west, however, then you may want to buy property somewhere else.
Mention Sandringham and most people in the know will associate it with Sandringham High School, which has a sterling reputation as a top government high school. In addition you have access to a plethora of top private schools including Saheti, St Andrews and King Davids Linksfield, among others.