Kuils River

The days when Kuils River was the poor cousin neighbourhood of the Northern Suburbs are long gone. The town at the foot of the Bottelary Hills and its wine farms has become one of the best value for money residential areas north of Cape Town during the last 20 years. Do not judge a book by its cover. Kuils River will win no prizes for the attractiveness of its strip mall main street, Van Riebeeck Road.

But turn up into Carinus Street between MacDonalds and the Municipal offices and within a couple of hundred metres you are into the established neighbourhood of Elim around De Kuilen High School. Higher up the hill,  across Amandel Road, you are in Amandelrug and Amandelsig. Houses in this area were built from the early 1980s and are typically spacious and on 800-1000 metres + plots.

By far the majority of these larger houses have been modernised during the last 10 years. A similar trend occurred in Silver Oaks, the neighbourhood on the Saxenburg side of the Langverwacht Road, and a number of other, older, neighbourhoods.

These areas also have a number of townhouse cluster developments, well planned and intergrated with surrounding free-standing houses.

Above Amandelrug are newer areas, Rouxville and Haasendal, with great views towards Cape Town and Table Mountain.

If you turn up into Langverwacht Road towards Stellenbosch, the road ends at Zevenwacht Wine estate. On the edge of the farm, are the security neighbourhoods of Zevenzicht, Zevendal, Zevendal Country Estate, and Klein Zevenwacht.

Quality of living here is on par with similar Winelands neighbourhoods in Durbanville and Stellenbosch. Further upmarket developments towards Brackenfell are planned for this area, including new residential neighbourhoods around the Kuils River Golf Club.

Kuils River is also well located for people working in the Bellville, Tyger Valley, Durbanville, Brackenfell and Stellenbosch area, as well as the growing warehousing and light industrial areas around the town, such as Saxenburg and Brackenfell Industria.

Getting in and out of Kuils River is rapidly improving with the top by-pass road, Saxdown – linking with Brackenfell Boulevard, Bottelary Road, and Langverwacht Road  – being opened in August 2016. The bottom part of Amandel Road has been doubled, and work has started on the off and on ramps from Bottelary onto the R300, linking with the N1 and N2 highways.

Kuils River has one of the top High Schools in the Northern Suburbs, De Kuilen, while De Kuilen Primary is an English medium school and Laerskool Mikro an Afrikaans medium school. A Curro private school recently opened on the border between Kuils River and Brackenfell.

A new primary and a high school has been approved on a large site opposite Kuils River Rugby Club.

The Bottelary Hills is a paradise for mountain bikers with established routes over a number of wine farms. Kuils River has its own squash courts, as well as an active bowls club.

The local large shopping centre is Zevenwacht Mall, but neighbourhoods are well served with smaller, convenient shopping centres, with brands such as Spar, Pick n Pay, and Checkers.