Connection

Gardening in the driest or windiest parts of the country? Xeriscaping may be the system you’ve been looking for. We’ve all heard about water-wise gardening – the practice of choosing, grouping, and placing plants according to their watering needs in order to maximise the efficiency of the little water you have.

Seeking secure retirement community living but for under R2 million? There are surprisingly many options. Today’s retirees are quite a young lot, living active, lock-up-and-go lifestyles that often set a fine example to the generations after them, but not all of them have R3 million or more to invest in a contemporary home on a lifestyle estate.

Blue water, a beautiful mountain, a bustling food scene … no, it’s not Cape Town, although it’s easy to see why inland-dwellers consider the Hartbeespoort area the next best thing to a beach. 

We’ve come a long way since Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth documentary in 2006. Although not the first we’d heard of climate change and the effects of globalisation, it was an eye-opener for many and it sparked fierce debate. Things that were only spoken of then are now becoming reality, and we probably all understand the severity of global climate change, and what this means for future generations. 

Hartbeespoort, in the heart of the Cradle of Humankind north of Pretoria, has been steadily shifting its profile over the last few years – from primarily a holiday/weekend destination to a primary residence village in the countryside.

When you read the word ‘wearables’, it conjures up images of wrists with Apple watches or Fitbits, especially for those of us who deal with certain health insurance companies. But wearables are much more than monitoring your heart rate, steps and sleep.

Satisfy your dream of owning property in Europe by investing in one of the region’s most dynamic and affordable cities – the wealthiest city in Portugal and its capital, Lisbon.

Security is more than just creating a barrier and controlling access. It’s a relationship that – at its best – so seamlessly integrates vast amounts of data that it almost seems not to exist. And that’s what we at Servest pride ourselves in – creating whole-view solutions for every aspect of your estate’s security.

Investing in a Section 12J offering is not a short-term undertaking so, while the numbers are important, it’s probably a good idea to buy into something you can believe in – something that talks to your heart as well as your financially-oriented head. Mdluli Safari Lodge may well do that.

Started in 2010, Citiq Prepaid has become the biggest and fastest growing prepaid meter and utility vending system provider, trusted by landlords, body corporates and property managers, property developers, municipalities and electrical contractors.

Openserve, the Telkom Group’s redesigned wholesale division, is South Africa’s largest telecommunications infrastructure provider with the biggest fixed broadband network in the country.

For most of us, the financial and economic mayhem caused by the 2009 global financial crisis is little more than a distant, mildly painful memory. However, given that the crisis had its roots in the unethical granting of credit by some larger international financial institutions, one of the lingering consequences of the so-called credit crisis is that banks are now a lot more diligent when it comes to checking whether people should be receiving credit or loans, and if so, how much credit they should be getting.

Primacare.co.za provides Adjustable beds, Hospital Beds, Home care beds, mobility scooters, patient lifters, patient hoists, bath lifters, oxygen concentrators, alternating pressure mattresses, anti-bedsore mattresses, ripple mattress, Walkers, Rollators, Mobility aids, wheelchairs, electric wheelchairs, wheelchair cushions, wheelchair ramps, power wheelchairs, riser recliners, grab rails, bed rails, shower aids, commodes, toilet aids and Much More – throughout South Africa!

Wherever in South Africa you live, it’s probably freezing, so you’ll be thinking of escaping to somewhere warm – possibly with turquoise water, waving palm trees and snow-white sand. But then, come summer, you may head north to go skiing. It just shows how out of touch we can be with the seasons. But we don’t have to be.

Pest control is an essential element in estate management, but it needs to be carefully managed – both to ensure the safety of residents and pets, and also to prevent ‘collateral damage’ to urban and peri-urban wildlife.

If you’re thinking of investing in South Africa, it’s worth looking at some of the rapidly developing industrial hubs that are evolving in strategic locations around the country.

Trudging around the golf course and playing tennis are ‘like so yesterday …’ your teenagers say, rolling their eyes skyward. Followed by a ‘there’s nothing to do here’ as their fingers tap the keys and the mayhem of one of a dozen blood-and-gore-filled computer games continues. This lament can be heard from tweens, teens and young adults the world over – gone are the days that residential estates could get away with the bare essentials of outdoor activities like (indoor or outdoor) gym, jogging and MTB trails, and a pool. The youth of today are way more demanding, and as parents and estate developers we need to take heed.

The Internet of things (IoT) has become a hot topic of conversation with technical, social and economic implications. It is a concept that not only has the potential to influence how we live, but also how we work and play. Projections for the impact of IoT are notable, with some anticipating as many as 100 billion connected IoT devices, and a global economic consequence of more than US$11 trillion by 2025.

In the greater Cape Town area – where house prices continue to rise at rates that outpace the rest of the country’s – one new estate stands out, both for the quality of its homes, and for its entry-level affordability.