SA's top spot to live

Johannesburg - The leafy suburb of Westcliff pipped sun-drenched Cape Town as the most desirable place to live in South Africa.

This is just one of the surprising findings produced by a recent property survey published in this week's edition of Finweek.

Security, infrastructure and self-sufficiency were deemed key criteria in electing Westcliff the best 'burb, with Clifton and Pretoria's Woodhill Country Estate following close behind.

Finweek partnered with market research firm Ask Africa to help select and rank the top spots for 2008.

A sample of 28 suburbs, involving both middle- and upper-end pricing categories, was chosen from the six biggest cities: Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth and Bloemfontein.

These suburbs then competed against each other in 11 categories designed to measure the quality of life for local residents. The categories included crime and safety, access to emergency and medical services and investment returns.

Although Clifton did not make the top spot in the suburb survey, it is ranked as the highest priced suburb with houses averaging R16.5m.

Other Cape Town suburbs took the three top ranks in the middle-class suburb survey, while Pretoria houses the wealthiest South Africans and gated golf estates steal the prize for number one in safety.

Commenting on SA's property market, Fin24.com and Finweek property writer Joan Muller said the market had been under pressure lately. "Doing a survey like this highlights the importance of doing your homework when you want to do suburb selection".

"No longer can you buy a house and sell it on four years later for double the price; we have to be quite careful in our suburb selection and this helps people to do that."

Listen to Finweek property writer Joan Muller provide more background to the survey in this week's edition of Off The Record.

- Fin24.com