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Property returns: "expect 60% in 3 years"
Realestateweb - South Africa
It won't be long before the residential property market turns the corner, says real estate player.

Falling house prices and rising inflation may make you feel queasy about bricks-and-mortar assets. Don't despair: it won't be long before prices start turning the corner and heading up again.

That's the message from Tony Clarke, managing director of Rawson Properties, who believes that you can expect a 60% capital gain on your property by 2011.

His comments follow warnings from estate agency bosses like Lew Geffen, chairman of Lew Geffen Sotheby's International Realty, that sellers reject today's offers at their peril (click here for that report). Geffen believes the property market is faring much worse than ABSA's House Price Index figures suggest.
Real Estate web

More borrowers bypass solicitor in favour of new title insurance tools
Independent - Ireland
An increasing number of people taking out mortgages or switching lenders are bypassing solicitors, new figures show.

People arranging mortgage finance can dispense with the need for a solicitor, if they use a new product called title insurance.

And there has been a 69 percent rise in people using title insurance in the first three months of this year, compared with the same quarter last year, according to data from the Irish Mortgage Corporation.

The introduction of title insurance has shaken up the conveyancing market here and seen the cost of conveyancing fall by up to 50 percent.

It has become especially popular among those who are switching mortgage lenders -- the only growth area in the homeloans market at the moment.
Independent

Workshop opens up road ahead for Cape Town developers
RodneyHayter.com - South Africa
Cape Town's City Council and Eskom have jointly eased the concerns of one of the city's residential developers following a recent workshop.

Paul Henry, Managing Director of Rawson Developers and Home Builders, says in a company press release, after attending the workshop, that he is "a great deal more hopeful" about the future for his company - and for Cape Town developers in general.

Henry says the workshop organised by the City Council and Eskom showed that both organisations were responding very positively to the energy crisis. The workshop was aimed at developers, engineers, bankers and others involved in property development.
RodneyHayter.com