Web Bytes 228

Standard Bank home loan applications end in dustbin
Business Report - South Africa
Standard Bank is declining all new applications for home loans received from mortgage originators.

This action appears related to efforts by all the major banks to renegotiate the agreements that the banks have with mortgage originators and specifically to slash the commissions paid to originators. The spokesman for Standard Bank, Ross Linstrom, said yesterday the banking group was still in discussions with mortgage originators, adding that it was not appropriate to comment at this stage.
Business Report

New survey shows Johannesburg's market carnage
RodneyHayter.com - South Africa
Sales volumes have dropped by up to 100 percent in some Johannesburg suburbs and home prices have fallen substantially in most parts of the metropole, according to the Gauteng Property Price Indicator (GPPI) produced annually by Sotheby's International Realty in SA.

Compiled from Deeds Office figures, this reveals the shocking extent of the damage done to the Johannesburg property market over the past year by the combination of high interest rates and the credit shutdown.

"There are many suburbs," says Lew Geffen, chairman of Sotheby's International Realty in SA, where there has not been a single sale in 12 months, and there are others where the average sale price being achieved has halved.
RodneyHayter

What's the deal with private selling?
Personal Finance - South Africa
Homeowners with properties to sell are breaking with tradition and ditching estate agents in favour of finding their own buyers. With prices under pressure, selling privately is taking off because of the money you can save yourself in commission. But isn't a sluggish market the time when you most need the skills of an estate agent? We look at what it takes to sell your own home.

After years of buying and selling investment properties, Cape Town-based investor Steve Binos decided to take a stab at selling his home himself. Binos placed an advertisement in the property supplement of the weekend papers, organised boards and brochures for a show day, and had an attorney friend draw up the paper work.

When his Harfield Village house sold to a cash buyer on the first show day, Binos was blown away.
Personal Finance

Bid to protect borrowers in forced sales
Sydney Morning Herald - Australia
New laws will stop banks and other lenders selling repossessed houses at less than their market value, the NSW government says.

Lands Minister Tony Kelly says in the current economic climate many home owners have fallen behind in their mortgage payments and face the forced sale of their home by lenders who foreclose.

"But it is immoral that these home owners have been exposed to the risk of unscrupulous lenders seeking to force through a 'fire sale' of their property," Mr Kelly told parliament. "Properties are often sold for well below market value simply to recover the lender's debt, leaving the home owner with nothing."
Sydney Morning Herald