Corobrik has supplied 2.4 million Moroccan Red travertine face bricks for construction of the award winning Little Manhattan apartment complex.

Ockert van Heerden, Corobrik Director of Sales said that Little Manhattan had definitely raised the bar when it came to the provision of affordable accommodation within South Africa’s continually growing urban built environment.

Although the initial reason for the choice of this product was its durability and need for little, if any, maintenance, he said that clay brick – and face brick in particular – came with a “desirability factor” and status.

This introduced the concept of quality of life into the entry level housing sector.

He pointed out that government had ratcheted up its expectations of affordable housing to far more than simply putting roofs over heads and required that projects such as Little Manhattan actually enhanced lifestyles.

He added that they should pave the way for those who started out with rental accommodation such as this to ultimately become empowered to the point where they become home owners in their own right.

Van Heerden noted that this user friendly environment was, in fact, home to tenants that were mainly young and single or young families with one or two children.

Little Manhattan

Little Manhattan has five schools within walking distance and shopping centres nearby. The estate is located on a main arterial route into Pretoria’s city centre and is served by Tshwane’s A Re Yeng rapid bus transit with a stop situated just 100 m from the gatehouse.

The first three phases of this R2.4 million project have been completed and the total 410 units are already occupied.

The project has 10 phases. All with feature Moroccan Red travertine face bricks. Phases four to six will add a further 474 units to Little Manhattan.

Phase 4, which comprises 63 units, was handed over at the end of October, followed by 38 units that make up Phase 5 at the end of February 2015. Phase 6’s 42 units will be handed over in March.

Phases 7 to 10 will add a further 716 units by July 2015, bringing the total number of units to 1 600.

Van Heerden said he believed that the success of projects such as Little Manhattan hinged on a good balance between aesthetics and practicality. Face brick had exactly this combination and was hard wearing, required little maintenance but still had aesthetic appeal, he concluded.