Southdowns Residential Estate, in Centurion, celebrated its tenth anniversary and the launch of its latest development phase earlier this month, which will result in the construction of 65 townhouses and 16 full-title clusters.

The townhouse options include two- and three-bedroom lofts in sizes ranging from 155 m2 to 213 m2, known as The Loft development, and three-bedroom units called The Paddocks, which will be available for occupation in December this year and December 2017 respectively.

Nine units will be constructed for The Loft development and 56 units will be constructed for The Paddock development.

The full-title cluster, called The Village, which will open for occupation in September next year, comprises two- and three-bedroom units ranging from 250 m2 to 320 m2. The size of the stands will range between 500 m2 and 700 m2. The full-title clusters will be available for sale by mid-2017.

There are currently 539 completed residential units at the 100 ha estate.

Property developer Southdowns Management Services MD Jack Prentice highlighted during the media tour earlier this month that one of the estate’s most salient features is its direct access to natural gas.

He explained that the natural gas system had drastically reduced Southdowns’ dependence on the national electricity grid, stating that as much as 30% of the estate’s energy needs are now provided by natural gas during peak demand.

Prentice added that, since installing the gas network in 2006, three residences have successfully been able to negate the use of the national electricity grid, relying solely on natural gas for their energy requirements instead.

Southdowns receives gas directly from petrochemicals group Sasol’s natural gas pipeline, which extends from Mozambique to Secunda, in Mpumalanga, and then to its South African customers.

Gas engineering company VGI designed Southdowns’ gas pipelines and reticulation, which comprises 7 km of high-density polyethylene pipe network, valued at about R11-million.