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Rode Conference warns of rocky road ahead but opportunities do exist
Rode and Associates - South Africa
Speakers at this year's popular annual Rode Property events countrywide had stern predictions for both residential and non-residential markets, with participants debating whether or not the 'green shoots' starting to appear in various sectors of the market are revealing any real indication of an upswing from rock bottom.

Acknowledging that South Africa's conservative banking system had probably saved it from the total onslaught felt in markets such as the USA and UK, there was also healthy debate among speakers as to whether the conservatism should continue or whether the time had come for banks to loosen their reins on finance.
Rode

FNB Mortgage Market Update
FNB - South Africa
CONCLUSION
Although the SARB New mortgage loan numbers remain very weak compared to prior years, it is believed that the mildly diminished rates of year-on-year decline in value of new mortgage lending indicate a household sector that has begun to respond positively to sharp interest rate cuts, and that moderate strengthening in the growth rates (slowly away from negative to towards positive growth) will follow.

In the coming quarters, new mortgage value growth is expected to rely increasingly on a stronger economy, with the SARB Leading Indicator having started to point the way up, and such mild improvement is expected to lead the FNB House Price Index out of deflation in 2010.
FNB Mortgage Market Update

Ghost bidders, ghost property profits
Realestateweb - South Africa
Auctions, syndications: Often property deals are not what they seem.

This week in our wrap of real estate news: Property investing can be a dirty business. Take the shenanigans that go on behind-the-scenes at auctions, or returns' projections concocted out of thin air by property syndicates.

Puffing up the price. Fed up with that unspoken practise, covered by some auctioneers in their fine-print, where ghost bidders bump up the price on that property you've been eyeing? Its days may be numbered.

Sunday Times veteran auctions' journalist David Pincus revealed at the weekend that a lawyer has been digging through old cases and hints that legal action may be on the cards for auctioneers who use this method to push up prices.

According to Bill Hartard, of fixed property specialist Segoale Property Mart, an "attorney has discovered a case dating back to December 1861 which applies to auctions". In Van den Berg versus Du Toit, the auction of a farm was stopped because the auctioneer had bumped up prices using 'puffers', known today as plants or ghost bidders. The judge at the time, declared puffing was wrong, declared it illegal and cancelled the sale.
Realestateweb

Instructors Drive
L.E.A.D - South Africa
Due to an increasing demand for its training services, the Law Society of South Africa's Legal Education and Development (L.E.A.D) division is rapidly expanding its education, skills transfer, practice management and mentorship offerings for practitioners.

L.E.A.D needs your expertise in your particular fields of practice
Registration form