Douw Steyn is one of South Africa’s richest men, with a personal fortune of well over R8 billion. Steyn owns Auto and General Insurance, and left South Africa in 1992 to launch the Budget Insurance group in London. He has returned, and will be making a permanent mark on the Johannesburg landscape by creating a residential estate bigger than the whole of Sandton.

Mr Steyn City will sit snugly between Dainfern and Diepsloot. Diepsloot, in case you didn’t already know, is in Johannesburg, and sprang up as a cheap labour response to the development of the luxury Dainfern estate in the same area.

At 900 hectares, Mr Steyn City will be roughly three times the size of Dainfern estate.

Development will cost a jaw-dropping R6 billion before construction on residences has started.

According to designs, a wooded parkland will account for half the estate, with roughly 11,000 residential units built around it.

Apart from a private hospital, two private schools, and multiple office parks, the estate will sport a 70km track for off-road cycling, and a 42km route for runners.

The main premise of the estate’s design is to limit the need for motor vehicles as much as possible.

The CEO of Steyn City Properties, a Mr Plumari said, “One of the biggest barriers to our lifestyles of old, where children grew up playing on suburban streets, is the motor vehicle. Steyn City’s network of pedestrianised pathways and cycle tracks will thread their way through the estate, linking all residential dwellings with the numerous parks and dense woodland.”

Business Day reported:

At the heart of it lies Palazzo Steyn — a private residence for Mr Steyn, which is rumoured to have cost more than R150m.

It has been reported that Mr Steyn’s house has a garage for 33 cars, a wine cellar, seven bedroom suites, and is situated above a man-made lake.

Read the rest, here.

[Source : Business Day]