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Credit and mortgage advances
South Africa - Absa
Marginal uptick in household credit and mortgage balances growth

Growth in the value of outstanding credit balances in the South African household sector (R1 669,6 billion) was only slightly higher at 6,1% year-on-year (y/y) at the end of May 2019 from 6% y/y at end-April when outstanding balances came to R1 660,9 billion.

Household secured credit balances (R1 261,8 billion and 75,6% of total household credit balances), which includes mortgage, leasing and instalment sales balances, increased at a rate of 4,9% y/y in the 5-month period up to end-May (5% y/y at end-April). Mortgage balances growth was somewhat higher at end-April from end-March (see below), whereas growth in instalment sales balances (R285,2 billion and 22,6% of total household secured credit balances) came to 7,5% y/y at end-May (8,3% y/y at end-April).
Credit and mortgage advances

It’s boom time in eKasi
South Africa - Property360
Former townships’ lucrative rental market offers extra income opportunities to property entrepreneurs

While the rest of Cape Town goes through a property slump, it is boom time in the townships.

As migrants, students and professionals return to the areas as tenants, emerging property entrepreneurs such as nurses, teachers, journalists, taxi owners, retirees and business people are buying up and converting properties to service this lucrative new rental market. Developments can be up to 10 units, are often double-storied, and vary in size from about 10m² to about 40m².

Rents range between R1500 and R3000. Development Action Group (Dag), an NGO with more than 30 years’ experience in urban governance, housing and community organisation, has called it “backyarding version 2.0 in that it is bricks and mortar, the accommodation is legal, safe (built according to approved plans) and affordable”.
Property360

The current status of electronic signatures for real estate transactions in Scotland, England and Wales
UK - JD Supra
We see examples of electronic signatures all the time in everyday life – when you make that online purchase by ticking a box "accepting terms and conditions", when you "sign" a handheld touch screen to confirm receipt of your delivery and when you use your fingerprint to pay for goods on your mobile. What you rarely (if at all) see is the use of electronic signatures in real estate transactions – this article explores the reasons why.

Before transacting electronically with others, one needs to be sure that the electronic signatures will be as legally binding as traditional wet ink signatures and offer adequate protection from forgery. Otherwise remorseful purchasers and unscrupulous vendors could seek to unravel contracts after performance to avoid obligations that no longer suit them. Innocent parties could also be exposed to a whole new level of electronic identity fraud.

The law therefore needs to evolve to provide a framework in which electronic signatures are as binding and safe as traditional wet ink signatures. Here we will look at the current legal framework for the use of electronic signatures and in particular the barriers to their adoption in real estate transactions in Scotland, England and Wales.
JD Supra

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