Linbro Park, Sandton

On the other side of the N3 from Marlboro Drive lies Linbro Park, on the edge of it all. Whilst the west of the N3 - a major artery connecting the N12 and the N1 in Johannesburg but veering off all the way to Durban if necessary - is majorly dense with Alexandra, the Far East Bank, Eastgate and Marlboro Gardens nestled side-by-side, the east of this busy highway is anything but.

Linbro Park is a mixture of huge plots where people keep horses, old farms and the odd warehouse, depending on where in the neighbourhood you find yourself. Homes here are large, many properties have horses in paddocks, and old rickety farmhouse gates greet your entrance into some driveways. It's a neighbourhood that appears to have been lost.

Lonehill, Duinfern and the like this is not. The neighbourhood has a distinct unkempt feeling about it in very much the way that former outlying areas on the edge of the city had years ago before development crept ever-further north. There is evidence of beautiful old trees and slightly rundown dwellings. Highly preferable for some over the manicured and Beverley Hills' style modernity that is most of Johannesburg's newer suburbs.

The Gautrain's route crosses the northern boundary of Linbro Park where the landfill is, past the agricultural holdings and then across Modderfontein. This has not stopped a greenstyle community from beginning to co-exist in an eco village here, and Johannesburg's first cob house from appearing on the property.

Properties here are huge, houses are rambling and there are few for sale, although not many. It is a neighbourhood for those who still want to capture the soul of what it is to live on the outskirts of town with easy access to its business districts.