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New house price index: prices falling fast
Realestateweb.co.za - South Africa
Prices down 2% on last year, and dropping almost that fast in one month - mortgage originator's stats show.

South Africa's largest bond originator ooba, (formerly MortgageSA), has decided to release its own property price index. Called the "oobarometer", it will be released in the first week of each month.

Also included will be details about the types of deposits and interest rate discounts consumers have been receiving when their home loan applications are approved.

Saul Geffen, chief executive of ooba, said: "Mortgage originators originate around 75% of all new residential home loans in South Africa and ooba is the first originator to release a house price index."

In its first release, the oobarometer reveals that the average price of a property purchased in July 2008 was R782 385, down 1,9% from July 2007 when the average price was R798 300. Prices have fallen 1,4% since June this year.
Realestateweb.co.za

Parliament dumps land occupation bill
Business Day - South Africa
Landlords battling to get rid of recalcitrant tenants will not get the legal relief promised by an amendment to the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act - for another year at least - as Parliament's housing committee rejected the bill yesterday.
Non paying tenants will still be able to resist eviction unless the landlord goes to court.

The failure to pass the bill, three years after it was first introduced, will also mean that vulnerable farm workers will not be protected against evictions by farmers and that the legal and interpretational difficulties arising from the original act will continue to cause problems.
Business Day

What a load of tosh from the lawyers
Irish Herald - Ireland
Solicitors promise you'll be able buy a house in five days but that will be the day says our very sceptical expert ..it's just spin Re-engineering conveyancing could take forever -- it would be quicker to drain the Shannon...
Irish Herald

Retail sales bad news for retail property
Rode.co.za - South Africa
The growth in retail sales has been losing steam for some time now, with the figures for May 2008 revealing that real sales (actual volumes of sales) were down by nearly 4% on the same month a year earlier.

This comes on the back of a recent report in the Cape Argus, which noted the number of Western Cape restaurants, coffee shops, bakeries and butcheries that had already closed shop since the beginning of this year. One Western Cape-based auctioneer reported that his company alone had, since January, sold the equipment of around 70 establishments.
Rode.co.za