Key changes for trustees in sectional title schemes to implement
IolProperty - South Africa
Now that the Sectional Title Schemes Management Act and Community Services Ombuds Service Act have been signed by the Minister of Human Settlements and the President has signed the Proclamation Notice for these acts, certain changes will have to be made in the management of sectional title schemes effective on the date that they are published in the Government Gazette.
There are some transitional provisions set aside, so that trustees and managing agents have time to make changes, such as the regulations on fees and levy collections, which will commence 90 days from the date of publication.
The provisions of the Community Services Ombuds Service Act regulations regarding the registration of schemes is 30 days from the date of publication and the filing of schemes' governance documentation 90 days. The public participation process was carried out late last year, and the comments that were submitted have been assimilated and incorporated into changes made to the original amendments.
There are certain key changes, and if these are remembered, and due processes followed, then bodies corporate should have no problems with the new ways of managing their scheme, says Michael Bauer, general manager of property management company IHFM. The changes to be made are to:
IolProperty
Mortgage Barometer - Financial Stress
FNB - South Africa
During 2016, as the multi-year economic growth stagnation has proceeded further, there appears to have been some heightened concern over the level of financial stress in the Residential Mortgage Market.
Such concerns are not altogether without justification, given gradual interest rate hiking since early-2014, and an economic growth stagnation since around 2012. But some perceptions of the financial stress situation of late may have been worse than the actual reality.
FNB Mortgage Barometer
Africa and Asia now growing sources of foreign interest in SA property
Rawson - South Africa
Foreign interest in SA is still strong, but it is no longer coming predominantly from the UK and Western Europe, says Rawson Property Group Managing Director Tony Clarke.
“Instead, we are seeing a rapid increase in the number of prospective buyers from elsewhere in Africa (notably Nigeria, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Angola, Mozambique and the DRC); from some of SA’s partners in the BRICs grouping, namely India and China, and from other countries in the Far East.”
The reason for this shift, he says, is that foreigners buying in SA are generally not buying primary residences, but holiday homes or investment properties. “In other words they are usually wealthy individuals with funds to spare – and with the Eurozone having taken an economic beating in recent times, there are fewer individuals there in that position.
“The fallout from the Brexit vote has similarly diminished the number of potential buyers from the UK, because the worldwide drop in the value of the pound immediately made SA property about 10% more expensive for them than previously, and then even more expensive as the rand started to strengthen again.”
Rawson
Joburg’s old village suburbs offer a vibrant lifestyle
South Africa - Ennik Estates
Some of Johannesburg’s oldest village suburbs are today delivering a truly new-age café society lifestyle to their residents and visitors, says Ronald Ennik, founder and principal of higher end Gauteng homes marketer Ennik Estates.
“It is an ongoing phenomenon that is a gaining traction as time passes. And it is adding value by attracting residential property buyer interest from those who seek to participate in, and benefit from, the process.”
The stand-out suburbs that are driving this trend, adds Ennik, are Parkhurst and Parktown North – followed closely by Norwood and Melville.
“Their common denominator is that they all date back to the early 1900s. Furthermore, they are collectively home to an abundance of world class pavement restaurants, coffee bars, pubs, fashion boutiques, beauty salons, antique shops, art galleries – and tattoo studios,” says Ennik.
Joburg's old village suburbs
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