Owner: Property South Africa URL:http://sa-property.blogspot.com Join Date: Mon, 03 Sep 2007 01:54:55 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Real Estate in South Africa and news for all investors wanting to get into the South African property market. Site statistics:Click here
Bond Originators - Is Extinction on it's way? 2007-09-10 08:37:00 DYING DYING - NEVER, Alive and kicking man!Questions I've heard frequently in recent weeks:Are bond origination services feeling the brunt of the NCA?Is it the end of the road for the bond originator?Will banks take over the bond business?When will bond originators cease to exist?To be totally honest, I think it's the beginning! And please stop bringing all this negative energy into my SPACE people, it's not good for business ;-)Really though, what I do think is that South Africa is going to sift out the little originators from the big originators. I believe that the bond originators that did no prepare for the changes the National Credit Act was going to bring to this country and home financing will be the ones and are the ones that are taking heat and feeling the strain. It's thrown a spanner in the works and they don't know how to deal with certain issues...One reason I firmly believe bond originators will stay around and continue to be the number one source of bonds for banks Read more:Originators
Levelling Off in House Prices - YEAH!!!!!!! 2007-09-02 20:13:00 The growth in the median house price declined relatively sharply to 5.7% year to year in August from 10.4% year to year in July, signally a levelling off in house price growth.This means that, even though with all the other financial factors in place, house prices continue to climb, albeit very slowly, this could change quite simple when and if any further tightening of monetary policy at the next Monetary Policy Committee meeting in October, which is seen by many as a strong possibility, will change the financial environment and thus the outlook for the housing market going forward.C'mon TITO help us out here man.Well this can mean its time to buy your dream house as the prices are more realistic.Seriously, we think the inflationary control measures are fine and we can see that we are at the peak of interest rate hikes and should within the next 12 months see the downward trend come into place.This together with decent prices could really spark some interesting property times.TITO, t Read more:House
, Prices
ABSA Home Loans Winter Special [Digg] 2007-05-25 01:59:00 Winter in South Africa has kicked into gear and by the looks of things so has ABSA. Looks like banks are taking advantage of winter so people can take further loans to WARM THEMSELVES UP? By yourself that $20 000.00 sofa and use your mortgage to finance it... OR not! Read more:Digg
, Loans
, Special
SA Homeloans - Goods, Bads and Pitfalls [Digg] 2007-04-17 02:11:17 Great article on SA Homeloans. Was wondering how they made their money. One of the top SA homeloan companies in South Africa. Read more:Digg
Bob Woolmer's Murder Most Foul [Digg] 2007-03-23 01:20:52 Seeing the news that Bob Woolmer's been murdered feels like the day the Twin Towers got broadcast to the world. It's too much of a TV show to be real. Read more:Digg
MyRoof.co.za - for sale by owner [Digg] 2007-03-22 08:07:40 This is a great private property website with FLOOR PLANS and wide angle photographs - gives you a great idea of how the property looks! Read more:Digg
Banks offer R1000000 [Digg] 2007-03-20 09:43:46 Banks finally get off their high horses and start offerring a little something back to the community. Or they're feeling the pressure of the individual companies taking away their business. You decide. Read more:Digg
Credit Cards 2007-09-30 20:36:00 Good afternoon to you all. It's been ages since we've written some good articles and I'll be honest with all the public holidays and long weekends, well, we've just fallen behind. No excuse though and I plan on making it up this week with a post every day! We've decided that this week we're going to have some great debt saving tips and financial advice tips from some of the leading bank and mortgage originators...A special thanks to the Debt Doctor who's provided us with some great expert debt saving tips and techniques.With the amount of credit cards on offer right now, it's tough trying to choose the right one. It really pays to investigate and check which credit cards offer the benefits and rewards that suit your needs.Don't be fooled by the colour of the credit card. It's called marketing and it's a great way to sell an expensive and costly item. Think about it, GOLD associated with wealth, so lets get a gold card why don't we... Don't be fooled. All they do, is show Read more:Cards
, Credit Cards
Home Loan Interest Rate Increase - AGAIN! 2007-10-12 02:42:00 I don't like starting Friday's off with bad news, so let's start off by saying;"THE BOKS ARE GOING TO KICK SOME SERIOUS ASS ON SUNDAY!"Unfortunately that's not the reason for my article. It's with some regret that the home loan interest rate has increased again. We now have a home loan interest rate of 14%.This is due to the reserve bank increasing the repo rate by 50 points but it really saddens me and I'll tell you why. Food prices are going up, petrol prices are going up and the reserve bank has the cheek to say that the reason they're increasing interest rates is because they want to curb consumer spending. Well you know what, why don't they worry about curbing our damn food prices instead worrying about how much people are spending on luxury items and every day goods...Sort out the actual problem and let our interest rates be for a while.DO you know that the interest rate increase has jumped from 10.5% in 2005 to 14% in 2007. That's big man, and it's making it very very Read more:Interest
Harpooned on the Whale Watch!! 2007-10-09 22:10:00 So I finally went to Hermanus to see the whales!!!! Absolutely delightful and one of the 101 things to see before you die.However, our accommodation adventure started out as a disaster but ended up brilliantly and the aftermath was a disaster again, I felt like Captain Ayob vs Fawlty Towers thanks to my adventures with Misty Beach Hotel in Hermanus.Like most new age travellers and more senior members of the public, we use our staff to assist us in booking online for our travels and so we booked through the Internet about 3 weeks before our whale watching expedition and the pictures on the Internet were ever so sexy, luxurious and can you imagine ......" member of the Portfolio Collection 2002-2004Welcome The Misty Collection is a group of luxurious accommodation establishments including a Guest House and Hotel in Hermanus Western Cape, South Africa. The impressive lodgings are situated in the best land-based whale watching destination in the world - Hermanus.Accommodation at our hotel Read more:Whale
6 Ways to Better Manage your Household Debt 2007-10-08 08:02:00 Happy Monday to all... For those of you who've been watching the rugby, I hope you all feel as terrible as I do today. I think I'm officially beginning to get old! Thank goodness this rugby thing happens once every 4 years!Anyway, I have a great little debt management tip article to post today courtesy of Absa Home Loans Department.6 Ways to Better Manage
your Household
DebtDraw up a monthly budget of all income and all expenses and stick to it.Speak to your creditors about alternative repayment arrangements. Most will be happy to help you.Always pay your essential expenses first, like electrical and water bills etc.Try to settle high-interest accounts firstDon't make emotional, impulsive purchases - especially not on credit.Shop around for bargains and cheaper pricesWizardMan out!
3 ways to save on agent commissions 2007-10-17 10:12:00 You want more cash in your pocket at the end of the day! So where can you save money when purchasing or selling your property! Lets start with 3 methods to cut costs when using estate agents.Gone should be days of paying 7% commission to agents. It's firstly a rip off and secondly it's costing you a fortune! Well lets show you how to save some cash.Negotiating down your agent's cutFor Sale by Owner - Private property salesGoing "HANS" SoloNegotiating down your agents fee'sMost real estate agents take a commission of roughly 2.5% to 3%. Their total cost anywhere between 6% and 8% of which the difference is paid out to the companies and parties involved in the sale. RIP OFF! However as more and more smaller agents and online businesses start coming into the fold real estate agents are becoming more and more susceptible to discount "chat". Taking reductions in their commissions. After all, we know they're earning too much money, lets take some of that cash back.To get that commission
Could you manage an interest-only loan? 2007-10-16 02:10:00 Incredible deal isn't it?So incredible that it's sounds like it's not real?So great that it allows you to free up money every month. It drops your monthly installments and you can afford WHOLE lot more house.Now interest only loans this may be the perfect investment opportunity for those that know how to handle their finances. If you're a good personal financial advisor and you don't buy more mortgage than you can handle, I say go for it.If you're not, I say contact a mortgage broker that offer normal home loans and don't be silly.So what's the catch and why the advice, you may ask, well, lower monthly installments, ZERO equity for years and then BAM BAM BAM, monthly instalments to floor mother Russia.You see interest only loans allow you to pay interest only, for a period of x years depending on the lender. The problem with this is that once those x years have passed by all those monthly payments you missed out, get added to your monthly installments once the interest portion
Debt Consolidation- Online Debt Consolidation Forum 2007-10-15 08:57:00 Was browsing the net this weekend looking for some good debt consolidation sites and came across a great little community. Now although it's not a South African site, debt consolidation and debt in general is a worldwide phenomena and it's always nice to read about other peoples problems that relate to yours.It makes you realise that not only are you sharing this problem with a person, but you're sharing it with millions and millions of others...So take a look at the Debt ConsolidationForum
who specialise in Credit Card Debt Consolidation
and sign up! It's a great community and well trusted amongst the Internets Debt circles.Let me know what you think of them...WizardMan out!
SA Homeloans - CEO - Simon Stockley - Integer 2007-10-15 04:00:00 Integer Bond OriginatorsAfter a long time away from South Africa, one of the founders on mortgage origination, the first man to bring securitisation into the home loans market and the ex CEO of SA Homeloans Simon
Stockley has come back with a new product on the S.A. market - INTEGER.What is this product and is there something new that Simon Stockley is bringing into the South African mortgage market, check out the interview on MoneyWeb with Integer's CEO, Simon Stockley. Is it the end of SA Home Loans?Has anybody used Integer bond originators?
South African Property Neighbourhood Watch - Property Blogging 2007-10-22 06:12:00 VIVA THE BOKKE & FORZA FERRARI! Sorry, I've been screaming that for the last two days so I needed to post my joy online for all to see! What a weekend for sport and nerves, in fact it was so good I've woken up happy and smiling and ready for work on a Monday. Let me tell you, that doesn't happen too often! Anyways, well done John Smit and well done Kimi Raikonnen. Two new world champions crowned in one weekend...Moving on, I've had quite a few requests from international readers to start writing posts about the suburbs in South
Africa and it's surrounding regions. People say that it's the one thing that's lacking on the web and in South African
sites. I did some searching on the net and it's true, if you search for suburbs and for real estate investing in South Africa there's nothing. So how are international investors meant to know what the good area's the not so good area's and the up and coming area's in South Africa are...Think about it, if you're relocating, what Read more:Neighbourhood
, Blogging
U.S. Subprime Mortgage - Boom or Bust for S.A. Home Loans Markets 2007-11-01 08:46:00 I'm assuming that most of the people that read this BLOG are either Property Guru's or Financial Barons so if I talk about the U.S. SubprimeMortgage
problems that have been going on for the last month or two you're most likely up to date.If not take a quick read through: Economist.comThe question that's been on everyones minds is; Will the U.S. Subprime mortgage lending crisis effect South Africa's mortgage market? Personally, I don't think so and so far it hasn't. If anything we've been one of the few fortunate countries that haven't been affected. We're fortunate enough in South Africa, that our securitization mortgage market is alot smaller than our bank lending market. Their are very few companies in South Africa that use securitization as a means of supplying funding i.e. SA Home Loans
, Eagle Bond Originators, Rudco Finance and now Integer Bond Originators but there's still alot of scepticism amongst South Africans and the majority still prefer using the major banks.If Read more:Markets
Real Estate Search Engine 2007-11-01 02:44:00 Been doing alot of surfing lately and I came across another great site.Unique in it's own way, Ahyer.com! is a completely FREE real estate search engine listing site. Their technology is unparalleled and leap years ahead of Trulia which by the way has been really unsuccessful.Ahyer.com has been very successful in countries such as Malaysia, The Philippines and The Caribbean and are hoping to continue their success in South Africa. Although their forms seem to be a little longer than most, don't be put off, it helps eradicate junk spam and will enable your real estate searching and selling experience become a pleasure vs a burden.Could Private Property be on their way out?Check them out Ahyer.com
Read more:Estate
, Search
, Engine
, Real Estate
, Search Engine
Help build awareness - The Financial Blogosphere 2007-10-30 17:57:00 I came across a unique and very different site the other day! It's a FinancialBlogosphere
Site. The sites and the posts are hand picked and the top 10 posts from every BLOG are personally added to the sites reader.It's relatively new so it has a couple of features that could do with some fixing up, but try it out folks, it's great, and a lovely resource for all.Congrats guys, it's always nice to know that there are people out there, willing to help clean up the Blogosphere!Check it out, it's definately worth it http://www.ourcommunitypower.org/blogreader/is.phpWizardMan Out!
First Time Home Buyers 2007-11-09 09:31:00 Don't bite off too much house...The age old method of home loan affordability could lead you to disaster and we're finding more and more queries and complaints about affordability and first time home buyers getting themselves into debt. Here's how to get a better idea on what you can afford.I was going to start this off by saying "20 years ago..." but it's not, it's not even 6 months ago that first-time home buyers were encouraged to maximise their profitability and put all their investments and savings into a massive house. Stretch yourself and buy that R2,000,000 apartment. Hey, for first time buyers back then it even made sense.Lets face it folks, today, it's asking for SH!T, pardon my french.Here's what's changed in 20 years (or more) since your parents bought their first house:Inflation. Price increases in the last 5 years meant you could count on hefty annual raises.It's no longer just you. A generation ago, single-income families were more common. If the breadwinner los Read more:First
, Buyers
, First Time
, Home Buyers
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