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Land reform on track, but new farmers failing
Iol.co.za - South Africa
While land redistribution is on track to meet the 2008 deadline, the Land Claims Commission says 40 percent of agricultural handovers end in economic failure.

"We can't have redistribution that is too fast because it will not succeed," North West and Gauteng land claims commissioner Blessing Mphela said in Pretoria on Tuesday.

Briefing reporters, Mphela said land redistribution had to be sustainable.

"The most critical issue is sustainability, otherwise we will become like Zimbabwe which distributed all its land.

"If land is not redistributed properly you end up killing people," Mphela said.

"We've got to do it carefully otherwise we will end up like our neighbour."
Iol.co.za

Count your blessings
Financial Mail - South Africa
Low by international norms, prices for SA properties still have room to rise
The world has become nervous about the global property boom, since former US Federal Reserve chairman Allan Greenspan warned a few weeks ago that asset prices were too high and a correction was due.

Last week the Financial Times devoted a full page to what it headlined "Dangers of the great housing market delusion". In it, FT chief economics commentator Martin Wolf warns that, since house prices in most developed countries have risen faster than incomes for almost 10 years, "only two possibilities exist".

"Either prices have to move to a higher equilibrium and purchasers will have to save more and consume less. That would have significant economic implications. Or they have reached an unsustainable level, in which case they will fall, in real terms. That would have far more significant economic implications," Wolf cautions.
Financial Mail

Nigeria: Govt to Computerise Land Allocation
ThisDay - Nigeria
Gombe State Government is to computerise the Ministry of Land and Survey in order to stop shady land deals by speculators and dubious persons.

The State Commissioner for Lands and Survey, Barrister Mohammed Magaji Doho, in an interview with ThisDay, disclosed that many Government layouts have been intruded upon by dubious individuals.

According to Doho, although the committee set up by government to verify illegal sales of government plots has not submitted its report, more than 50 government plots were discovered to have beentampered with by land speculators.

He said that three land speculators have been arrested and handed over to the police for trespassing on government plots.
ThisDay

Asda puts houses on its shelves
Guardian - UK
Asda will enter the property market this summer, the supermarket announced today. The chain announced plans to introduce a service allowing would-be homebuyers to browse houses via touch-screen terminals in stores.

People wanting to sell their homes will be able to key in their phone number at the terminals and a surveyor will call to carry out a valuation. The service, called Homes@Supermarkets, will be launched at 10 stores in the north east of England in July, and will be rolled out to other areas in the UK if the trial is successful.
Guardian

Conference to tackle the debate of and ownership by foreigners
Iprop.co.za - South Africa
The first Annual Top Property Conference will take place at Melrose Arch in Johannesburg on Wednesday 7 and Thursday 8 June 2006. The two-day event is the first of this size and stature, and promises to be the annual definitive property investment experience. The MC will be well-known business and media personality Michelle McLean.

The conference is aimed at executives and opinion leaders as well as local and foreign property investors and entrepreneurs.

The media partners for the conference are eProp and Commercial and Industrial Property News. The organiser is Top Conference and Events. The proceedings will begin at 8.00am on both days.
Iprop.co.za