REAL Estate veterans, Ted and Judi Mcdonald, share with Queensburgh News how their beloved Queensburgh neighbourhood has evolved and grown over the years.
From traffic lights to double-storey houses and complexes, the couple said the people stayed the same after all these developments.
Also read: Ted and Judi celebrate Queensburgh’s past | Highway Mail
The retired agents enjoyed more than 17 successful years in finding and selling people’s homes.
“I became interested in property because I had been looking for a house in Pietermaritzburg and was intrigued by the agents’ knowledge and I thought the field was fascinating,” said Judi.
In just their first year of business, they completed almost 50 sales and 180 during the next three years and became an established and successful husband and wife partnership in the real estate business.
The couple said when they first moved to Queensburgh there were no traffic lights and there was minimum traffic in the area.
“There was one particular officer who some may remember as he was quite a character in Northdene. His traffic commands looked like a choregraphed hand dance,” said Ted.
If one drives along the main road of Queensburgh, one would notice that there are churches all the way and Ted said the trend is not new it has always been the case in the area.
Dealing with property, the pair remembers how convenient it was when the rates’ office was in Malvern and obtaining a rates’ clearance took a matter of days and not weeks as one may encounter nowadays.
Ted misses riding his bicycle. He said it was safer to ride a bicycle back then when you did not fear being knocked over.
Many of the old homes have been remodelled. The couple remember selling to their first Indian client in the 90s and from then on the neighbourhood evolved into a mixed culture, friendly town.
Also read: Tracking the railway history of Queensburgh | Highway Mail
There used to be just about 13 complexes because back then, people did not like the idea of living in a box and they wanted a garden, but now they are more popular and their number has grown.
How they advertised their business also had to change with the times.
“We used to walk to deliver pamphlets to people’s houses,” said Ted.
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