# Property query



## Tike (Nov 1, 2009)

Hi all, I have two quick questions hopefully...
1. What is a 'simplex' please?
2. I notice that a number of new houses have staff quarters on them. Do most households still employ house maids, cooks etc?
Many thanks.


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## Thatch22 (Aug 12, 2009)

Tike said:


> Hi all, I have two quick questions hopefully...
> 1. What is a 'simplex' please?
> 2. I notice that a number of new houses have staff quarters on them. Do most households still employ house maids, cooks etc?
> Many thanks.


A Simplex is a cheap house.

And yes a lot of households still employ, house maids, gardeners etc. But not always fulltime and not always "live in"staff.


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## Tike (Nov 1, 2009)

ahh thank you.
I presumed a simplex was a small complex, but the properties didn't seem to bear that out!
I lived in Maritzburg many years ago and remember the 'servants' system then, but didn't think it existed in any form now.


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## Daxk (Jan 20, 2008)

Thatch22 said:


> A Simplex is a cheap house.
> 
> And yes a lot of households still employ, house maids, gardeners etc. But not always fulltime and not always "live in"staff.


Thatch is wrong, a simplex is so calleed as its a single story "Bungalow" usually as part of a semi-detached or free standing estate to portray it UK terms. 

only 13 million of SA's 48 million population earn enough to pay income tax
so maids and gardeners are a part of most people lives.
and if you have children a live-in maid/childminder is very common.
when I left the minimum wage was R1200/month and I think thats now R2500 a month.


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## Tike (Nov 1, 2009)

Daxk said:


> Thatch is wrong, a simplex is so calleed as its a single story "Bungalow" usually as part of a semi-detached or free standing estate to portray it UK terms.
> 
> only 13 million of SA's 48 million population earn enough to pay income tax
> so maids and gardeners are a part of most people lives.
> ...



ahh thanks for that.
I havent been back in 30 years from when I was a teenager. I am looking at the possibility of going back out to PMB to see if emigration is a good move. We left in 76 so apartheit was still going then but I still miss the general way of life and the better standard of living.


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