In South Africa property reviews must include info’ about the suburb to be at all meaningful

To be based in Cape Town or Johannesburg is not a question that one can answer in just a few words – not if you want to do justice to either place, and it doesn’t only have to do with coastal versus inland. Choosing between the port-cities of Durban and Port Elizabeth, for example, can be just as challenging. As important as your personality type is in making up your mind is the stage of life that you are at.

South African property reviews in Cape Town invariably touch on locality relative to the beaches or to Table Mountain, to the Kirstenbosch botanical gardens or to the winelands. In Johannesburg much is made about how close or far the property is from the various hubs such as Sandton City, from the green belts or from the top schools. Durban has its tropical climate and greenery, Port Elizabeth is known to many as the friendly city.

But none of these sweeping comments are sufficient in themselves to base a decision on as to where you want to spend a large chunk of your life. The varying landscape, its range of climates and weather conditions, and not forgetting its many different people – there’s so much diversity that to be meaningful, in South Africa city reviews of repute focus on the actual suburb under consideration, or even on a specific area within a suburb. In Cape Town for example, while there are properties in Newlands and Vredehoek, say, that both include houses on the slopes of Table Mountain, with many in both suburbs that are charming in character and similar in value, the suburbs are quite different in a number of ways – not the least of which is the weather!