Issue 3

Landscape architecture blends seamlessly with nature to make this estate – built around the last swamp forest on KwaZulu-Natal’s North Coast – a model for sustainability and community living.

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Crossways Farm Village

Crossways Farm Village and the New Ruralism: new towns, old farms, 21st-century opportunities. Old policies and new ideologies have plunged South Africa’s rural areas into a downward spiral towards economic disater. It doesn’t have to be like this, though – if we return to basic by reconnecting with our agricultural roots. ‘Agriculture,’ says Chris Mulder, ‘is the new golf.’

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Forty on L

BLOK RAW’s FORTY ON L brings global travellers and savvy locals a trendy urban lifestyle at a deliberately lower price point without compromising on quality.

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Greenhill Estate

The Green Housing Company is a Gauteng-based building and property development company. They work across a spectrum of markets including domestic and commercial buildings such as off-grid shopping malls. Their speciality is building highly insulated and energy-efficient homes for both the high-end luxury property market and the affordable housing sector.

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Staycation Johannesburg

Rather than fight your way to a popular holiday spot this December, stay home and get to know your city better. Really, are you going to join the lemming exodus down to the coast? Or brave the crowds at OR Tambo so that you can spend hours squished up in a plane? While a holiday is a great idea, sometimes getting there and back is so stressful, you need another one once you get home.

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Invest in Property in Cyprus

Buy direct from the developer and save thousands on your property investment in Cyprus (member of the European Union). Many South Africans are looking to invest in overseas properties, with most of them seeking a Plan B as well as an investment opportunity.

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Count your blessings

While the end-of-year holiday is a great time to go hiking, biking, diving, surfing or more, it’s also a great time to kick back and just chill. And what better way is there than to line up a bunch of seriously feel-good movies, make some popcorn, open a bottle of something fizzy, and curl up on the couch surrounded by friends and family, with at least one pet snoozing gently on your lap?

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The good the bad and the ugly

Restoring and developing old buildings is essential to preserving our heritage, so it’s important to go beyond minimum compliance with the regulations. There’s so much to consider when you’re developing an old building – and that’s over and above the regulatory hoops.

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2019 Legislation summary of relevant acts

Important legislation applied to estates and their management teams in 2019. Here is a summary of each legislation, its application and what you need to know and have in order to ensure compliance.

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Out in the open

Take advantage of balmy summer nights by organising some fantastic outdoor events for your residents. One of the big advantages of living in South Africa is our fabulous weather, and one of the big advantages of living on an estate is the open space – so take advantage of those fabulous summer nights by organising some great outdoor events for your residents.

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Private Equity Funding

As private equity funding continues to enjoy favour among South African investors, we take a look at the traditional structure, and consider alternatives.

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Sustainable cement

With increasing consumer awareness of global warming and CO2 emissions, combined with possible future carbon taxes on various industries, it may be time to rethink concrete.

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What are the techprop and proptech start-ups to watch in 2020?

Digital transformation is disrupting every industry across the world. The real estate sector is no exception, with residential and commercial markets seeing a large number of techprop and proptech start-ups each year.

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Growing investments

You have to have plants on the estate, so why not plant things that can bring in a bit of an income? Many estates have quite significant tracts of open land, some of which is used for recreation, and some of which is just there because the plan for the estate specified a certain percentage of green open space.

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Should estates go plastic free

How can residential estates contribute to reversing the preponderance of plastic waste in our surroundings, rivers and oceans? Plastic litter is possibly the most visible of the environmental issues facing us. And, unlike greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, it’s not really debatable.

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Colour in Nature

Blur the lines between the great outdoors and your interior spaces by replicating nature’s colours on your walls. Here’s how.

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Is a smart city a healthy city

While developers of smart cities claim that they are healthier than non-smart cities, do they really address the issue that cities – regardless of their IQ – are unhealthy? Or are they just applying a metaphorical Band-Aid?

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All at sea

Danish students are living in beautiful floating container homes in Copenhagen Harbour. Can this system help us to solve our affordable housing crisis?

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Are IKEA flat-pack houses viable in South Africa?

Prefab housing does not have a great track record as an affordable option in South Africa. So could IKEA-style flat-pack houses work here like they are in the UK?

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Security Switch

Humans or robots? It sounds like the sort of choice you’d only have to make in a sci-fi movie, but for more and more estate security managers, it’s a very real dilemma. The advances in digital technologies – including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data, automation and machine learning – have made it possible to employ a full-service security force staffed entirely by non-humans.

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December 2019

Issue 3

December 2019

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