At either of the two entry points to the 2 000-acre luxury residential estate, the initial release from the stresses of city life becomes apparent. A total of 14 lanes – seven entry and seven exit at each gatehouse are just one of the ways that Steyn City loosens the clutch of the gridlocked, traffic-heavy cycles of city living and with two new roads being completed, connections between east and west and south-north connecting Winnie Mandela Drive to N14 highway to Centurion and Pretoria will all go towards making Steyn City a major node.
We drive in on the Winnie Mandela Drive side of the estate, cranes and scaffolding interrupt the skyline to our right where building activity is underway at the estate’s flagship apartment development, City Centre, which is a collection of luxury apartments built as intimate villages, each clustered around a treed piazza. In contrast to typical apartment living, which can often have constraints on living space, garden areas, amenities and privacy, City Centre provides a distinctively unusual blend of lifestyles. This will appeal to young professionals, small families, property investors, and semi-migrators who frequently travel between cities as well as foreign nationals. Here, they get a unique blend of luxury urban living that comes with access to a roll call of amenities once reserved for a select few.
At Steyn City, apartment residents have non-exclusionary access to everything the estate offers to freehold property dwellers and the list of what’s on offer is impressive to the smallest detail. Apart from the obvious ranging from on-site restaurants, coffee shops, a gym, an office park and even a heli stop, other nuanced touches stand out. An immediately noticeable and welcome feature on our visit to the City Centre and the rest of the estate is the absence of unsightly and unwelcoming high walls and fences, further freeing residents from the plagues of city realities in South Africa. Instead, endemic trees form natural boundaries of greenery between all the home types. One of the residents who has lived on the estate long enough to witness its landscape establishment evolving from the early days when it was “just saplings everywhere instead of the established trees and urban forest you see now.” When developers Douw Steyn and Giuseppe Plumari launched Steyn City in 2015, Patrick Watson was tasked with the landscaping. Today, the ingenious landscaping design is brought to life in City Centre with unexpected pockets of lush greenery. Pockets of plant life are purposely planted in the underground parking, an usual spot for greenery that is dispersed with large cavities of light, and walkways leading from the basement parking to the various apartments show vibrant signs of lushness with varied dimensions and each piazza each with its own green space serving as attractive communal areas.
Over and above all this in the immediate surrounds of City Centre, apartment residents have full access to explore the sprawling 2000 acres of indigenous parkland in ways that further erase the boundaries between urban and nature-inspired life. At one point during our visit, we reach the equestrian centre and with one gaze across the vast expanse of land, homes, and other infrastructure, we see the cranes in the distant skyline at City Centre so far from where we stand that they are reduced to a Lego-like presence. The scale of the estate becomes more evident than before.
Few apartment dwellers can boast access to such little and large conveniences. These include an art gallery at your doorstep, a wide web of interconnected walkways that automatically light up at sunset, and a custom-designed 50km mountain bike track, often the track of choice for official races like the 94.7 Ride Joburg MTB race. Also available are yoga sites with built-in, one-of-a-kind outdoor mats, secluded outdoor gym stations with basic equipment (there’s an indoor gym with sweeping views of the estate too), over 40 outdoor sculptures often designed as outdoor pause areas with benches, and a man-made creek that runs through the estate. Additionally, inland dams attract prolific bird life, including anything from ducks to Kingfishers, with the presence of Impala, Springbok, and even free-roaming Jackal. Residents also enjoy a fully-fledged school on the premises, a massive 300m lagoon reminiscent of a holiday resort in Cancun, restaurants with varied culinary offerings, an equestrian centre, and a world-class championship golf course so cleverly designed that non-golf-playing residents are able to walk through it and enjoy the grounds even during play. All these perks, once accessible in ‘either-or’ scenarios that forced people to choose between this lifestyle or that, now come in a singular all-encompassing package that presents itself in one of Africa’s most influential economic and cultural hubs.
Property Profile: Optimum lifestyle – convenience and luxury meets apartment living in the City Centre
- One, two, three and four-bedroom apartments are available for purchase.
- Purchasing prices range from R2,7 million to R35 million.
- Interiors belie the exterior, once inside any of the units, the feeling of space is maintained with high ceilings, wide passages and all bedrooms being big enough for king-size beds.
- There’s a pleasing balance between open plan spaces and separate living areas in the larger units which offer separate television lounges, home offices and spacious outdoor entertainment patios.
- All kitchens from the one-bed bachelor’s to the double-storey four-bedroom apartments as well as penthouses have state-of-the-art blu_line kitchens, fitted with integrated Gaggenau appliances in phase 1.
- The larger residences (four-bedrooms, penthouses) have their own lift access directly into the home.
- The City Centre is equipped with both a backup generator and piped gas while an underground network of tunnels wide enough to fit small vehicles for quiet deliveries and also ensures inconspicuous disposal and collection of refuse.
- Residents have options to rent storage units in the underground parking area that boasts over 2 000 well-proportioned parking bays.
- Owners of electric cars have a charging station while all car owners have the convenience of an in-house car wash service.
- Penthouse residents each have glass garages, a novel feature for those with a car collection worth having in display.
- A diverse mix of interior designers have dressed up various show apartments on site which potential residents can opt to take as is or make tweaks to personalise their spaces.
