In Johannesburg, gated developments including sectional schemes, residential estates, commercial estates/ business parks and boomed-off residential areas account for 8,6% (141,4km2) of the total land area of the city, and 19% of its total built-up area (AfriGIS 2012).
As demonstrated in the map most of these developments have occurred in the urban core, along a diagonal in the central part of the province, from Johannesburg’s north-west to Tshwane’s south-east.
Urban sprawl driven by the edge development of new public housing developments and private, gated housing estates continues today, primarily in Johannesburg. Significantly, public housing delivery occurs mainly in the poorer areas of the GCR, i.e. in the suburbs to the south and west of Johannesburg and in the north of Pretoria. This is exemplified by the low-rise, low-density and suburban form of places such as Cosmo City, parts of Soweto and Orange Farm. All the aforementioned serve as good examples of the expansive growth of the region in areas which are lacking opportunity and significant transport connectivity. Conversely, and as could be predicted within a private property market, privately developed and gated housing estates are being built almost entirely in the city-region’s affluent, well-connected commercial centres. This economically driven spatial form of development further entrenches inequality in the city-region by concentrating poorer residents in the under-developed urban edge instead of the centre which offers more opportunity for employment and economic improvement.
