The East Rand is the hot new area to buy residential property - in particular, in Kempton Park, where value for money homes are available priced from R300 000 to approximately R3.5 million, says Nelson Ferreira, joint franchise principal of PGP's new Kempton Park office, which has just sold R12-million's worth of properties in the first two months of trading.

He adds that the fact that Kempton Park is the first city in the world to have a star named after it, as recently reported in the media (June 3, 2004), it can only benefit the local economy and also the property market in terms of increased exposure and awareness, and hopefully, increased investment. The star, which is 168 light years away in the Corvus constellation, has been named 'Kempton Park ZA Centenary', and is registered through the Star Africa Register, an international organisation.

"There's a tremendous surge of interest in properties in Kempton Park, particularly among business executives. It's a green, leafy area close to major highways and several large hotels and in close proximity to the airport. In fact, interestingly, the highest demand for homes is directly in the flight path, in areas such as Glen Marais and Glen Erasmia," says Ferreira.

He says demand is expected to increase even further as a major interchange is planned just a kilometre from these areas, providing even easier, quicker access to Johannesburg and Pretoria CBD's.

"Homes in Glen Marais and Glen Erasmia are across a broad range and priced from R300 000 to around R4 million. In Kempton Park's CBD homes average at about R300 000, while in nearby Aston Manor they are in the region of R650 000, and in Bonaero Park there's again value for money with homes priced from R200 000 to R1.1 million," says Ferreira.

He adds: "Already extremely popular among home buyers, Benoni simply has no more land available for development. We have managed to secured three properties on the border of Benoni and Kempton Park - 2.5 hectare plots zoned for agriculture, which we are currently marketing at R850 000, R950 000 and R1.25 million respectively. The latter has development rights for cluster housing, making it an ideal investment for a developer."