Fuel Price Rises and Freeway Tolls Bring Home and Workplace Closer Together

With fuel prices again on the rise, and freeway toll charges looming ever closer, more and more budget-constrained home buyers in Gauteng are seeking to live nearer to where they work says Ronald Ennik, a director of the Leapfrog Property Group.

“The latest pump price increases of petrol and diesel, which go into effect tomorrow (6 April), have added renewed impetus to this ‘work-close-to-home’ trend, and it is clearly evident in the buy enquiries we have been receiving recently in Leapfrog offices in the greater metropolitan areas of Johannesburg and Pretoria,” says Ennik.

“The biggest factor driving this process is uncertainty about the impact on future oil prices of the pro-democracy revolution now engulfing the Middle East, where the bulk of known world oil resources are located.

“Another major concern is the likely impact on household budgets of the imminent toll charges on the high-volume urban freeway system that encircles Johannesburg, and links with Pretoria,” says Ennik.

“The once popular, and often envied, lifestyle of living in Pretoria and working in Johannesburg (and vice versa) already seems to be losing its lustre among cost-conscious home-owning motorway commuters” he adds.

The same trend is also playing out in the South of Johannesburg, says Jacques Bronkhorst, Leapfrog's franchise principal for the upmarket suburbs of Meyersdal, Bassonia, Mulbarton and Glenvista.

“These areas are home to many people who work in, for instance, Sandton. For some, this could well prove to be a luxury they may no longer afford in the future,” says Bronkhorst, who is also a director of Leapfrog.