The expensive version of a smart home is the one bought from a brochure before anyone asked how the house is actually used. Lights that need a phone to turn on. A gate remote that was fine. An app the domestic worker was never shown.
Start with three things. Lights on a sensible evening scene. The gate, because that is the control people already want on a phone. And one button, or one tap, that means the house is empty: alarm set, lights as you left them, air-conditioning not running for an empty room.
Do not buy a brand because a shopping centre had a wall of it. We fit what the house can cable, and we name the kit on the quote after the visit, not before. If the walls are open, that visit should happen before the painter. Retrofit is possible. Some of it will show.
A cinema, a boardroom and a full lighting design are different budgets. Mixing them into one package is how a lights-and-gate job becomes a number nobody wanted. Say which of the three you actually want.
Johannesburg and Pretoria are both normal for that visit. Book it as a smart home consultation and say whether you are building, renovating, or living in the house as it stands.
Lights, the gate, and one button for leaving the house. That is a normal smart home brief.