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Hungry for home loans
Moneyweb - South Africa
Nedbank, which has been losing out to other banks in the battle for the home loans market, said this week that it has plans to regain old ground through direct marketing channels.

But it faces a tough battle. Rival banks are several steps ahead - and intermediaries in the form of mortgage originators are growing ever more powerful.

Consumers have generally been reaping the benefits of the growth of the mortgage origination market, with originators vying on their behalf for the best deal possible.

Along with this growth has come the risk that mortgage originators will ultimately control home loans' distribution - just as intermediaries do in the life assurance sector.
Moneyweb

Only 18% of farmland is black-owned
iAfrica.com - South Africa
South African whites own about 82 million hectares of SA's total farmland of 100 million hectares but the government needed to deliver 22 million hectares of agricultural land for black empowerment by 2014, said two top State officials on Monday.

Addressing Parliament's budget committee Land Affairs Department Chief Financial Officer Sarah Choane and Chief Land Claims Commissioner Thozamile Gwanya said - in a prepared submission - that about 1.9 million ha had to be delivered per year to meet this target.

The two said that the total size of land delivered since 1994 amounted to just 3.5 million ha. "This includes land delivered through the restitution, redistribution (processes) and State land," they reported.
iAfrica.com

Hands-off foreign property investors
Moneyweb - South Africa
The government's investigation into foreign ownership of real estate - which is due to be released next month - must ensure that it does not dent foreign investor confidence, property analysts warned.

Jacques Du Toit, Absa property analyst, told Moneyweb that the market is waiting to see what is in the document. "We hope that whatever is in the document will not create a negative perception with foreign investors or blow them away."

Du Toit says if the document comes out with heavy restrictions on foreign property ownership, to some extent it will paint a poor picture for other investors.
Moneyweb

You can't just pocket the rent
Chas Everitt Property Signpost - South Africa
Have you been declaring the rental income received on your investment properties?

Non-declaration of rentals received - after deducting the appropriate expenditure - is a contravention of the Income Tax Act. And with the improvements in the efficiency of tax collections by the South African Revenue Service, it is very likely that non-declarations of rental income will be detected, says Paul Nelson, director of Johannesburg-based auditing firm Nelson Financial (www.nelsonfinancial.co.za ).

SARS requires landlords to draw up financial statements declaring the profits made on any rented property. If several properties are let by the same landlord, these statements can be consolidated.
Property Signpost

Experts note 'cooling off' in housing market
Business Day - South Africa
The total real value of building plans passed for residential buildings was down 3,7% in the first quarter of this year, compared with the fourth quarter of last year, confirming analysts' perceptions that the residential property market is cooling down.

Absa Bank senior economist Jacques du Toit said yesterday that according to the latest building statistics, released by Statistics SA on May 18, the total real value of plans passed in the first three months of this year was R4,9bn, compared with about R5bn in the last quarter of last year.
Business Day