The area known as CHLOORKOP is situated between Edenvale, Kempton Park and Midrand in Gauteng Province and consists of proclaimed Industrial, Commercial, Agricultural and Residential land. The main service providers are Ekurhuleni and Johannesburg Metropolitan Councils.
Due to South Africa’s growing mining industry during the 1900’s, the largest explosives factory in the world known as “African Explosives and Chemical Industries (AE&CI), was established in the Chloorkop area.
In the 1940’s another large chemical producer “National Chemical Products” presently known as “NCP Chlorchem” also established itself in the area. Due to the noxious nature of both these industries the presence of vacant land has always been considerably greater than in other industrial areas, except for mining land.
Proclamation of Chloorkop Extension 1 Industrial Township was done during the seventies and due to its’ success, Extensions 12 and 19 followed soon after.
In the late nineteen seventies the proximity to Tembisa Township impacted negatively on the area’s growth in comparison to other newly proclaimed industrial areas. However, since 1997/98 the situation corrected itself as nearby Midrand area started expanding and establishing itself as a growth point, particularly for hi-tech industries and large-scale distribution centres. This development, together with the Allandale dual carriage-way which linked the N1 Motorway to O R Tambo Airport and various other main arteries, positively impacted on the Chloorkop property market. The GAUTRAIN Project together with the development of areas surrounding it also played a positive role in the growth of the area, as a whole.
At the time when AE&CI started down-sizing their operations at the Modderfontein Plant, a large amount of land was introduced to the market which was proclaimed for retail, residential, commercial, and light industrial use (of which Longmeadow, Greenstone and Founders’ View are best known). The nature of most operations in the Chloorkop area is mainly manufacturing and transport related, and properties are generally owner occupied.
The industrial areas in close proximity to Chloorkop and more specifically Spartan, Sebenza, Isando and Founders’ View all peaked during the economic growth cycles with a typically slow turnover during slack periods.
During the property boom of 2006/2007 sales of proclaimed, serviced land escalated on a huge scale. However, in January 2008 Eskom gave the country and industry in particular, a new perspective on survival when they announced load shedding, country wide. This dilemma resulted in industrialists having to “re-think” their forward planning. The deterioration of local service delivery further slowed down the proclamation of most new areas although serviced land sales remained consistent.
The evolution of Chloorkop, from a secondary industrial node to a primary industrial node, is epitomised by the industrial development situated on Allandale Road known as “Lords View Industrial Park”. This development brought to market 100 hectares of industrial land in one of the most innovative and sustainable offerings to date. “Proton Park” security development in Chloorkop became the flagship of the area in a relatively short space of time and well known national and international companies have made this their address of choice.
In summary, since Chloorkop has become an Industrial Growth Node in 2010, availability of property has become limited and in spite of fluctuating property values it has always managed to maintain good occupation percentages with moderate, sustainable return for investors.