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Township property sales boom
Fin24.co.za - South Africa
The township residential property market is showing more vibrancy than that of formerly white suburbs, Business Report wrote on Wednesday.

It quoted First National Bank Home Loans CEO Ed Grondel as saying that the township market was performing better than the national metropolitan market in more than one respect. It took less time to sell a township property and the odds were better that it would fetch the asking price.

At least 63% of residential properties in the national metropolitan market were sold for less than the asking price in the third quarter of the year.
Fin24.co.za

Interest rate hike "absorbed"
Business Day - South Africa
The FNB Residential Property Barometer reveals that the latest SA Reserve Bank interest rate hike has been "absorbed". Classic Business Day gets Ed Grondel on the line from FNB Home Loans
LINDSAY WILLIAMS: Ed, this is quite encouraging...

ED GRONDEL: Indeed. It's certainly bucked the trend - for the last four quarters or so we've seen a sideways move in terms of activity, but this last quarter has shown a slight improvement on the previous quarter, and in fact on the same time a year ago - so it's very bullish.

LINDSAY WILLIAMS: This is slightly different from the other banks - the last time the ABSA House Price Index was published price growth was 12.7%, but speaking to their property analyst he thought it might come down into single figures. Do you think we might have reached the bottom already?
Business Day

BEA portal speeds mortgage process
Computer Weekly.com UK
Law firm Goldsmith Williams has re-engineered its business processes and exploited a service oriented architecture to cut the average time taken to complete mortgage application conveyancing from 18 days to six.
Two IT staff at the firm developed the system last year, based on BEA's Aqualogic portal technology, to extract data from Goldsmith's case management system and put it to better use.

Since going live last December, improvements to the service that Goldsmith Williams offers to mortgage brokers have helped to boost the firm's conveyancing business by 10%, according to David Cannell, the firm's ICT director.

Cannell said the problem with the previous conveyancing process was that, while lawyers were focused on their clients - the home buyers - most of their business came via mortgage brokers.
Computer Weekly

Cover protects landlords when tenants default
Personal Finance - South Africa
If you have bought or inherited a property that you are renting out, you can now insure your rental revenue and the legal costs of dealing with defaulting tenants up to R40 000.

Hollard Insurance Partners and Tenrisk Underwriting Managers have launched a new insurance policy, the Landlord Protection Policy, aimed at the country's 1.2 million landlords.

Rob Kelly, the managing director of Hollard Insurance Partners, says the policy will give landlords a financial safety net, enabling them to pay their mortgage bonds, levies and legal costs when tenants fail to pay the rent.

The policy guarantees your legal fees up to R40 000, gives you access to a panel of attorneys who are experienced in dealing with defaulting tenants and the eviction of tenants, and provides up to three months' rent during an eviction and one month's rent if your tenant has absconded.
Personal Finance