Sandton in Johannesburg is now the undisputed financial hub of the country. Most of the international companies are located in this new mini CBD, and many new developments are going up all over the place. This is set to continue, as the new Gautrain (a high speed Rail link) will have a major station here.

Some pics taken on the streets...

The Johannesburg Stock exchange vacated its office in the Johannesburg CBD (about 20km away) in 1999 for its new home.
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Seen from the back
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Office space is highly sought after, and many bland buildings have been refurbished... Fredman Towers is one of them.
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa259/granova/DSC00386.jpg

Discovery Health's head office, it is a medical aid company.
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Attorneys
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More Attorneys
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Sandown towers, two new residential blocks in Sandton Drive
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Construction (sandown towers)
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Place on Sandton Drive - new home for luxury offices, and the US consulate
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Sandton Towers hotel, built in 1993 - largest hotel in Johannesburg
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa259/granova/DSC00365.jpg

Maude Street is starting to see a nice collection of midrange skyscrapers
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Maude Street
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the Michaelangelo Towers, luxury apartments, and a hotel. 35floors, completed in 2005
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The view towards cbd from 5th street
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On the streets, in fall
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Fall in Johannesburg
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Sandton Central

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Banks, near the stock exchange
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The new luxury apartment development, Hydro on Graystone (14Floors)
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The Emperor luxury apartment block, 12F (completed 2006)
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sunset towers under construction (13Floors)
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Radisson's new hotel under construction (283 rooms, 20floors)
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Lunch at village walk
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Johannesburg has a lot of trees, and because of this various species of birds are quite happy here... Three hadedas in a car parking lot. these guys can make quite a racket, especially on sunday mornings!
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa259/granova/DSC00388.jpg

Nice pictures. Funny, when I lived in Pretoria most of my friends were black (and, obviously, poorer) so we never really went to Sandton - we actually went to the CBD (and Soweto and such) to hang out... The only time I went to Sandton was with (white) co-workers and guests and such... Funny how it still works that way. Not that there's total separation - Sandton has black people. But the CBD typically doesn't have white people. Been a couple of years though... so maybe things have changed.

Nice pictures. Funny, when I lived in Pretoria most of my friends were black (and, obviously, poorer) so we never really went to Sandton - we actually went to the CBD (and Soweto and such) to hang out... The only time I went to Sandton was with (white) co-workers and guests and such... Funny how it still works that way. Not that there's total separation - Sandton has black people. But the CBD typically doesn't have white people. Been a couple of years though... so maybe things have changed.

Welcome to South Africa, but i guess the main reason is that most black people like myself have a lot more friends and family people in Soweto than in the rich and expensive Sandton. So chances are when you go to Sandton, you will be going to shop once in a while. There are other shopping malls closer to where most black people live so why spend lots of money going to the Sandton unless you were going to buy a Luis Vuitton bag or Gucci jacket or treat your girlfriend to the expensive Haagen Daz ice cream for your 1st anniversary.

And the economic balance in SA is still largely tilted against blacks for historical reasons. However this is changing quickly. Consider the fact that 600,000 black people entered the middle class just last year alone pushing that figure to a total of 2,600,000. So yes so much is changing in Sunny SA, i bet when you come here in 2010 you wont recognize many things. By the way, you might also see a lot of white people in downtown Joburg too as things are changing fast there too. LOL

Your photo of the birds is sideways. ;)

How much on average do apartments rent for in Sandton? And what do condos cost on average?

Sandton City continues to go crazy with cranes (just on this side of the city, i can see 6 cranes)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/177/431783498_b13cf99d95_o.jpg

another better picture of Sandton City, seen from the M1 highway. When Gautrain (SA's $3.5 billion Rapid Rail Transit system)
is complete, it will be possible to reach here in a 15 minute journey from the airport

http://www.sandtoncentral.co.za/images/galleries/scp_2006_17/img_0124.jpg

http://www.sandtoncentral.co.za/images/galleries/scp_2006_1/img_0015.jpg

http://www.sandtoncentral.co.za/images/galleries/scp_2006_11/img_0287.jpg

I like the varied architecture, looks great. It's so sunny and clean, reminds me of some southern Californian city.

How much on average do apartments rent for in Sandton? And what do condos cost on average?

Would say it starts from as little as $800 all the way to $6000 per month. But i used to rent a very lovely 2 bedroom loft apartment with a study and roof balcony overlooking the Sandton skyline within a walking distance from Sandton City Mall for about $900 around 2004/2005. I noticed lately some of the new developments with rental stock was around $1300 per month. Water and electricity are normally excluded but this would cost you roughly $15 and $50 respectively for lets say 2-3 people. I am sure you get the idea.

Sandton City, Johannesburg

http://www.sandtoncentral.co.za/images/galleries/scp_2006_17/001afternoonb.jpg

http://www.sandtoncentral.co.za/images/galleries/scp_2006_1/f1040033.jpg

http://www.sandtoncentral.co.za/images/galleries/scp_2006_1/img_0004.jpg

Johannesburg highways

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/160/402320565_92524298ae_b.jpg

Nice pictures. For someone that has never looked at a map of Johannesburg, can you tell me where Sandton is? Why is it becoming a new business district?

Nice pictures. For someone that has never looked at a map of Johannesburg, can you tell me where Sandton is? Why is it becoming a new business district?

Johannesburg's traditional CBD is towards the south, approx 15km if you drive down the 3lane M1 highway. The traditional CBD has experienced severe capital flight since the late 1980's. There has been various factors that played a role in this, but a lot of businesses, including the stock exchange left. The mayor banks stayed behind, and they basically saved the CBD. Sandton became the new business centre - and in the next few years almost 200 000m2 of office space is up for construction.

The traditional CBD is making a comeback, and all the mining houses and banks are still in this area - like anglo-american, de beers, bhp billiton, absa, standard bank, fnb, nedbank. The Gauteng provincial government is also based in the cbd. And cheaper rentals in the cbd means many NGO's and smaller companies take advantage of this. Small hotels are reopening (after 2 mayor hotels, with more than 1000 rooms between the two of them closed in 1998). Sandton is 5star, luxury, opulence - and very pretentious in many ways.

The traditional CBD is getting back a vibe, it is clean and safe - but not as glam as sandton, and I don't think it ever will be. For pics regarding the Johannesburg CBD check out the johannesburg thread on this page.

Nice pictures. For someone that has never looked at a map of Johannesburg, can you tell me where Sandton is? Why is it becoming a new business district?

Jake1 pretty much summed everything up. Where i differ with him, is whether downtown Joburg can ever be as glamorous as Sandton, personally i think the city will most likely regain its rightful place, No world city can ever be complete without a proper downtown district irrespective of whether there are other satellite business districts.

Downtown Johannesburg is way too big to be simply neglected and written off and the current resurrection is testimony to the fact that ultimately, investors will flock back to downtown Johannesburg and authorities will ultimately pump more money into improving public areas, safety and security, roads, rail and other infrastructure and savvy investors who realize they can get high returns will ultimately drive the comeback. Right now, the sale of Carlton Centre (highest building in the city) by Transnet (state owned entity) will probably signal the height of activity in Johannesburg's comeback.

Snow is very rare in South Africa but on Wednesday it was reported in many parts of South Africa including Johannesburg. The last time there was snow was in 1981.

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Aaahh great city!

Why, what's wrong with the old CBD?
Why did businesses leave that area? Are there apartments there now?

Interesting!!! Beautiful buildings!

South Africa is really surprising...

Why, what's wrong with the old CBD?
Why did businesses leave that area? Are there apartments there now?

From 1990-2000 there was a capital flight from the area as businesses escaped the crime and grime that seemed to have captured downtown Johannesburg and headed to the north which resulted in places like Sandton booming. The city has since managed to improve safety and turn the situation around which is now resulting in the regeneration of the inner city.

Perhaps the best way to illustrate the misfortunes and fortunes of Johannesburg is the fact that Carlton center, the tallest building with around 50 floors in downtown Johannesburg was sold in 1999 for a mere $6 million, yesterday it was auctioned to a new investor who paid $200 million for this building.

By the way Pallo, conversion of what used to be offices to mixed-use properties and apartments is driving most of the regeneration
of the inner city. So there is loads of new apartments under construction in Joburg like this with coffee shops on the ground floor.

http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa259/granova/DSC00092.jpg

http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa259/granova/DSC00130.jpg

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Nice pictures. For someone that has never looked at a map of Johannesburg, can you tell me where Sandton is? Why is it becoming a new business district?

Sorry to answer your question almost a month later. I was trying to find this one picture that shows Sandton relative to Johannesburg. If you look at the right hand edge of this picture, just past the red roof you will see a partial Skyline of what makes up downtown Sandton while the skyscrapers to be seen in the middle of the picture is Johannesburg. This highway (N1) which becomes M1 bypasses Sandton on the Western side first before getting to Johannesburg. From this its roughly a good 15 kilometers to Sandton and another 15 kilometers from Sandton to Johannesburg. The highway literally curves towards Sandton before it goes towards Joburg.

http://static.flickr.com/81/228996475_d2d392f433_b.jpg

Thanks for explaining where Sandton is. I just happened to be looking for another old thread and came acorss this one, in which I had forgotten that I had asked a question but saw the arrow on the side which meant that I posted something.

Thanks for explaining where Sandton is. I just happened to be looking for another old thread and came acorss this one, in which I had forgotten that I had asked a question but saw the arrow on the side which meant that I posted something.

Here's another better picture that shows the two cities next to each other. They are both linked by the M1 highway and as explained they are roughly 15 kilometers apart.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1312/775645939_d9a094b3f0_o.jpg

Johannesburg's northern suburbs, from the air
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa259/granova/sandton.jpg

Sandton City Shopping Mall, Sandton CBD
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa259/granova/sandton2.jpg

Do people actually walk in Sandton or is the entire Gauteng area just cars cars cars?

Johannesburg is much like Los Angeles. Cars cars cars. The city is way too spread out to make walking viable. For example. I have a friend that works in Rosebank, just a few kilometres from Sandton. But she can't afford to stay in that area, so she drives in every day. In sandton CBD foot traffic is medium, due to the topography and due to the fact that very few office workers venture outside for lunch. So not nearly as heavy as the CBD for example.

For the biggest part, cars are unfortunately seen as status symbols. People dislike walking, and won't take public transport if a car is an alternative. This is because currently public transport is inefficient, perceived to be unsafe, timetables are not part of the package - it is just not reliable. This is set to change with the introduction of the BRT system and the Gautrain rapid rail link. But citizen's will need to be re-educated.

But the city is huge. It is larger in terms of area than LA, for example. Johannesburg and Pretoria is basically one big sprawl now. And it seems that people are less keen to walk when the city is so spread out.

The roofs of all the houses in Johannesburg seems to have turned white with snow.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1159/636507505_7964568a1c_o.jpg

Why, what's wrong with the old CBD?
Why did businesses leave that area? Are there apartments there now?

by the looks of the new sandton CBD the buildings are pretty fortified and more like compounds than the old CBD

I went to one of the big malls there - i think it was sandton city in 2002 - it was pretty nice

by the looks of the new sandton CBD the buildings are pretty fortified and more like compounds than the old CBD

I went to one of the big malls there - i think it was sandton city in 2002 - it was pretty nice

Its actually both makes, you will find for example the JSE/Michelangelo/Convention center/Citibank will be like any building in any western city with its walls right against the street pavement while some buildings e.g. Discovery Health/Alexandra Forbes/Rand Merchant Bank/Investec will have an outside parkade and gate/boom to enter the building premises/compound.

However this is changing now that there is no longer much space to build on and new developments are now following the downtown Joburg's street-level approach. This is also driven by the need to bring back high street shopping and mixed use developments.

OMG I just adore Johannesburg, seriously, ever since i went to South Africa i keep falling in love with it more and more! Anyway, Sandton is amazing and even though people say its car-oriented, I must disagree, not completely though, but I spent 4 days in Sandton with my family and we did it all by waliking!

Beautiful Sandton, I'll still live there one day!

more pictures driving on the M1 towards Sandton from the Buccleuch interchange

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1136/851894850_3d6eb2e1e0_o.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1018/851895686_2ca8fa70f6_o.jpg

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http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1034/851035457_e59a518f8b_o.jpg

This is a new office block on 1 Sandton Drive, the American ambassy (consulate office) is leasing part of this block down the same road.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1371/918955826_2a713a1254_o.jpg
Courtesy of Pule

bump this up

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2096/2204948713_807c722a7f_b.jpg

too many car dealerships and shopping malls is one the thing most tourists notice
when they arrive in Joburg for the first time

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f119/Puleza/P1070228.jpg

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