Just 50 years ago, Sandton consisted primarily of large, private estates and smallholdings. Today it’s South Africa’s main business centre, as well as one of the key financial hubs on the African continent.
Sandton is home to upwards of 10,000 businesses, as well as the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. It includes the country’s most sought-after office space, along with upmarket apartments, opulent hotels, bustling shopping malls and popular cafés and clubs.
If you’re in business, Sandton is the place to be.
Did you know?
You might be familiar with Sandton’s commercial successes, but how many of these facts are new to you?
Sandton’s history
Did you know that…
- extensive ruins of an Iron Age smelting and forging site were found in the north Sandton suburb of Lone Hill
- the patterns on pottery fragments at Lone Hill suggest that the area was inhabited by Sotho and Tswana-speaking people, between 300 and 400 years ago
- Sandton is a short drive from the richest gold field ever discovered, in the Witwatersrand Basin; it’s estimated that up to 40 percent of the world’s gold originated there
- 33 years before gold was found in the Witwatersrand, it was found in Sandton! – in 1853, prospector Pieter Jacobus Marais panned for and found gold in the Braamfontein Spruit, the river now crossed by the William Nicol Bridge
- the name Sandton resulted from combining the names of two suburbs, Sandown and Bryanston.
Sandton today
A few fun facts about Sandton today…
- the 12-storey Sandton Convention Centre is one of the largest in Africa
- Sandton is also home to one of Africa’s largest shopping malls – Sandton City boasts close on 300 shops, with a whopping 128 000 m2 of retail space
- apparently Sandton City was nearly named the Knoppieslaagte City Shopping Centre
- the bronze statue of Mandela in Sandton’s Nelson Mandela Square weighs 2.5 tonnes
- among the guests who’ve stayed at Sandton’s Michelangelo Hotel are US president Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Mariah Carey, Gayle King, J. Cole, Lady Gaga, Kanye West and Justin Bieber
- among the companies that have head offices in Sandton are IBM, Sasol, Massmart, Nedbank, Investec and Ster-Kinekor.
Office space in Sandton
Office space in Sandton commands the highest office rentals in South Africa, making it a real challenge to find affordable space.
XtraSpace offers small businesses and entrepreneurs a solution. Our office and co-working space facilities in Sandton and neighbouring Wynberg provide affordable space at prime business addresses – and you won’t have to sign a long lease or invest in office infrastructure.
At our office space facilities, you’ll have the use of professionally appointed boardrooms, along with everything your business needs to operate – from fax and copy machines, to Wi-Fi access and on-site courier services.
Find out more about our office space in Sandton and neighbouring areas of Johannesburg, or contact us now for more information.