 For many, the search for a dream home begins at private property. The website boasts a wide variety of estate property, including sought-after options on the Harpiespur Dam and surrounding area, with an easy reach from Johannesburg and Pretoria. One of the must-see spots when visiting the region is the French Toast Coffee Café, which was originally built as a movie set and is now a popular spot for visitors and locals to enjoy Parisian-style meals. My name is Paul Kruger, I'm a film producer and I've been living in Harpiespur for the past 47 years and the main reason is this is kept down by the dam. Some of the main attractions around Harpiespur is the cableway, obviously, water sports on the dam, there's a snake in Animal Park, there's two film sets in Harpiespur, Pretville and the French Toast Film Set, where the movie French Toast was filmed. There's also Yasmein, which is a big farm stall, most probably one of the biggest in South Africa, and then a whole lot of restaurants around the dam. I think what makes life in Harpiespur unique is the fact that there's no big buildings. Whenever you look up you see blue skies, whenever you look down you see the dam and that's quite unique. Machhallisburg or the Machhallisburg Mountain Range is one of the oldest mountain ranges in the world and the fact that you can have all these hiking routes, escape from Joeburg, escape from Pretoria, that's ideal. We would not like to live here or start there own business here. I think French Toast is quite unique because we've brought a few elements out of Paris, out of France to Harpiespur. For instance a little mini Eiffel Tower which is close to 18 metres high, we've built a lock bridge where we've started with one lock and we've over four and a half thousand locks on there and each lock has got its own story. We've built our own I Love You Wall where you can see all the languages in the world the way you say I love you and there's a lot of photo opportunities. People are taking photos at every single corner on those little premises. Harpiespur is a clean dorpi with a big heart. The island's estate, a joining Peek-n-Wood-Golf estate is situated on 102 hectares of prime land on the southern banks of the Harpiespur Dam and is aptly referred to as South Africa's inland Riviera by its residents. My name is Dorian Barker, I moved to the island's estate with my family at the beginning of the year and we're now full-time residents here. I lived in the city before so this is a nice escape, this Harpiespur Valley is very laid back, it's a complete lifestyle change and we're a little bit obsessed with water and boating, laugh and anything to do with water and I believe the island's estate offers us everything that we could anticipate out of an estate. Some of the highlights are probably the security, my children can roam freely around the estate, can visit their friends, cycle without fear of anything happening. The island's estate has got a fantastic sports oval right at the top of the estate and we use that for cricket matches, any real sports function that you can think of. It's located directly alongside the Mashi golf course, you can practice your swing and you can lose a few balls because everything revolves around water. There's streams, there's all sorts of ponds in internal lakes, playground facilities for the younger kids and of course for the older guys we've got the clubhouse and go to the clubhouse on your boat, it's a boat as paradise. The estate connects to Harpiespur Dam through a series of locks, we've got two locks so the estate is substantially higher than the dam level, we go from one level to the next and then we're in our yacht basin which is at dam level and we can go straight into the dam from there. The canals are filtered through a dedicated wetland so it's a series of dams and we pump the water through it continuously to create a natural ecosystem and for that reason you can see the bottom of the canals anywhere you go, you can see the fish swimming in it, it's an environmentally friendly estate. If you're looking for a relaxed lifestyle and you have any kind of obsession about water security, beautiful facilities, this is your estate for you. Developed as a marina, the estate features six kilometers of navigable canals that meander between exquisitely designed waterfront homes. My name is Peter Ann, I'm with Sotheby's International Realty, Haudepia Sport Franchise, been in the business for about six years and love every minute of it. The island's estate offers 163-year-old properties, you've got Ibali Village which is sectional title and then you've got your Bay Bridge Canal and Marine Islands, properties are ranging from 600,000 to 12 million and then if you're feeling adventurous you can build. It's one of the few estates around the dam where you get to express your individual taste in your home design to create your dream. What's really great about the island's estate is we're quite central, being close to Pretoria, Krugerstorp Four Ways, Mom can stay at home and Dad can go through to Joburg. School wise we've got Pickenwood College on our doorstep, we've got a shopping centre on the other side of the dam and there's a proposed shopping centre coming at the island's estate gate, you won't have to go very far. Demographically I think we cater to a wide variety, come and be a part of it. The lifestyle, the community, it could be a holiday every day. Hartbeerspoort or Harties as it's affectionately known is indeed Kharteng's own holiday town with a friendly community and a big heart. Make sure you too live the lifestyle by finding your dream home on privateproperty.co.za. There's a home for everyone on private property.