Sunninghill has been one of the fastest growing suburbs in northern Jo’burg over the past decade. With both residential growth and commercial properties in the suburb it moved quickly from a sleepy suburb on the other side of the highway to a major commercial hub with many companies locate there.
At the same time there was a rapid redevelopment of the suburb with sectional title complexes replacing many of the smallholdings that previously dominated the suburb.
In addition to the work opportunities in the suburb the suburb is also optimally positioned for access to the commercial hubs across the north of Jo’burg including Fourways, Rivonia and Midrand. Access to Midrand has been vastly improved with the extension of Maxwell Drive and the recent upgrades to the Rivonia Road interchange and Allandale Road.
Another interesting development that will impact on Sunninghill in future years will be the massive development of the Waterfall area which links up to Sunninghill on its eastern boundary. With open land being taken up in a relatively high-end property including retirement and residential estates it is likely to have a positive impact on security in Sunninghill and the higher property prices in Waterfall should push up the property prices in Sunninghill as well.
Sectional title and residential estates now make up some 88 percent of the housing stock, dictating the average price for a property in the area is much lower than one might expect in areas which are located in such a prime location. While the average price for a freehold property in this area in R1.6 million, sectional title property prices averaged R833 000 in 2011. These prices have remained relatively stable over the past few years with only freehold properties seeing an increase from R1.4 million in 2009 and R1.6 million in 2011.
Home owners are dominated by younger age groups with almost 80 percent of owners under 50. There is also a faster turnover of properties with less than 20 percent of owners having had their properties for 11 years or more and around 70 percent of sellers having owned their properties for five years or less.
There is a shortage of schools as a general rule in this part of the world with Rivonia Primary and Buccleuch Primary the closest government primary schools and both of those over 2km away. However, Reddam House is opening a Grade 0-12 college in Waterfall in the near future and this should alleviate some of the strain on educational resources in the area.
