Sandton lies within Johannesburg's "northern suburbs", which is actually a collection of independent municipalities located within the greater Johannesburg region. It contains some of the most sought after real estate in South Africa. As recently as 1969 the area was made up of a collection of small farms and private estates. It has since developed into greater Johannesburg's most popular location for corporate office parks. Over the last decade, a host of large multi-national corporates and banking institutions, previously based in central Johannesburg, has relocated to Sandton. The JSE Securities Exchange (Johannesburg Stock Exchange) has recently (2002) followed them there. In 2002 the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development, which attracted tens of thousands of delegates, was hosted in the Sandton Convention Centre.

Sandton is also home to a couple of excellent malls, including the Sandton City and Nelson Mandela Square Shopping Centres. MonteCasino, a casino and leisure complex, is located in Fourways - Sandton. South Africans quip that the roads in Sandton must be extremely bad, judged by the amount of luxury 4x4's (SUV's) driving in and out of the place! The roads are in fact fine, although the increased business in the area has led to traffic congestion during peak times. Sandton has an excellent selection of hotels, B&B's and guesthouses ranging in luxury from three to five star establishments. It is centrally located near Johannesburg's major tourist attractions, the Johannesburg International Airport and a 45min drive from Pretoria (outside peak traffic times).