Johannesburg - Post Report Question and Answers
What is your housing like? What are typical housing sizes, locations, and commute times for expatriates?
We have a modern, four-bedroom home in small (10 unit) compound. It's got an open floor plan, small yard and pool. The compound provides a gardener and security. The house is within a 5 minute drive to several shopping centers and 10-15 minutes away from the U.S. Consulate in Sandton. - Aug 2023
Housing tends to skew on the small side, at least by AF standards. Most families are dropped into fenced neighborhoods made up of a few free-standing “townhomes”. Where backyards exist, they are small, almost to the point of being unusable. Maintenance is inconsistent, and it’s extremely difficult to get any support to address this. - Aug 2022
Families can expect a large home in a secure neighbourhood. - Jun 2022
Housing is generally good and nicely-sized. Some of the homes are laid out in an odd fashion (mine was) that makes entertaining a challenge, but others tend to have a large central room where you can host people for cocktails, etc. Many houses have small pools - kids seem to like them, but most adults admit they never use them. I had a pool and never set foot in it once. Most yards (aka "gardens") are small. Commuting times tend to be about 15 minutes in traffic for most U.S. Consulate employees. However, if traffic lights are not working, that can snarl traffic horribly. Frequently traffic lights are not working either due to malfunction or because the copper wiring has been stolen (happens a lot). Quirks: -There are no electric outlets in bathrooms, by law! This was a surprise to me. -Because winter is short and mild, most houses aren't insulated in the way U.S. houses are. As a result, the interior of your house can be quite cold in the winter. Sometimes it is colder inside the house than it is outside! Since heating is from wall units, but not every room has one, most people end up purchasing small electric heaters to supplement. - Oct 2019
We have a large house in a gated housing complex, about 2 km from the Consulate. If there's no traffic, the commute is less than 10 minutes. Coming home in the afternoon it often takes almost 30 minutes. - Apr 2017
We are not with the Foreign Service. If you are looking to move to South Africa on your own, this is a very good time with the favorable dollar to rand exchange rate. We bought a beautiful home in a lovely neighborhood. - Sep 2016
apartments and cluster homes. communte time to the Consulate is about 10-15 minutes. - Aug 2011
Embassy/Consulate housing is generally on compounds. Generally a town house our stand alone house in an enclosed community with a security gaurd on call. - Jul 2010
There are beautiful housing facilities in Jo'burg and the suburbs. All are pretty much gated and walled in. Traffic is crazy here! The roads cannot accommodate all the cars. The gov't keeps talking about expanding William Nicol (a main road that leads into Jo'burg), but nothing has happened in the 2.5 years I have lived here. - Oct 2009
