Property News - January 2007

Welcome to our property investment newsletter. The aim of which is to keep you up to date and informed as to the current property trends.

We are also pleased to announce the release of a new feature to our website, the affordability calculator. Please feel free to try it out, as it is the 4th in a series of property investment tools that we will be rolling out over the next months.

Thanks and Enjoy

Portfolio Property Investments News Team

Articles

Property Trends Higher interest rates to weigh on the housing market

The Reserve Banks Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) announced, on the 8th of December 2006, an increase of 50 basis points in the repo rate, which saw the banks prime and mortgage rates rising to 12,5%. Interest rates have been hiked by a total of 200 basis points since June 2006.

State of the Market Current State of Affairs in the KZN Property Market

Welcome to "State of the Market", a review of the property market in KZN. Hunters Managing Director Nash Cohen takes us through the recent history of the area in terms of growth and sustainability in the property market. Nash has been involved with property both with development companies and estate agencies in the UK and South Africa. His approach therefore is balanced by his extensive experience in two vastly different economies. What he finds surprising though is how trends repeat and cycles form, regardless of which economy one is looking at. He sees these trends and cycles in the property market following a repetitive pattern here albeit within the different economic constraints of South Africa.

Fractional Ownership Partially Yours Forever

The term "Fractional ownership" has come into to the market place as the latest "buzz word" in an industry intent on maintaining its vertical nature. The market as we have all seen is softening due in part to an over supply in the top end, as Developers struggle to show value and prices continue to soar. But is this a new concept or simply a rehashed, re-marketed version of an existing system?

Residential Property Perspective Building a new house versus buying an existing house

In view of the strong growth in the construction of new housing and the high sales turnover of existing houses during recent years, this article focuses on the merits of building a new house versus buying an existing one.

Legal Issues Legislative revamp includes shared property Ombud

The legislation governing property held in community, including sectional title schemes, will be revamped if a number of proposals are approved by the Departments of Justice, Land Affairs, Housing and the National Treasury.