New land ownership rights in TBVC areas set to affect developers
South Africa - PropertyWheel
The suggested changes to the Upgrading of Land Tenure Rights Act, 1991 (ULTRA) set out in the Land Tenure Rights Amendment Bill forms part of a labyrinth of South Africa’s land reform legislation, says Sihle Bulose, a senior associate at the global law firm, CMS.
“This is unique in the sense that our country’s land ownership system is not straightforward. We have laws that are trying to undo what was previously done.”
In 1991, the ULTRA formed part of a progressive movement away from the Apartheid era and land ownership system. ULTRA was aimed at providing better ownership or full ownership of land rights to citizens within township and rural areas.
“The Apartheid era laws provided for lease hold rights in black townships,” says Sihle. ULTRA provides a legal process for these lease hold rights to be automatically converted into ownership rights if a township had a township register – a separate system similar to the Deeds Office. A validated township register assisted with converting these rights into ownership.
PropertyWheel
Property Barometer
South Africa - FNB
Buying activity resurging, supporting prices
Annual house price growth rebounded to 1.4% y/y in July, down from an upwardly revised 0.7% in June and 0.6% in May. We note, however, that April and May’s house price indices are based on significantly lower volumes of mortgage transactions, which affected the stability of our price index (this can be seen from the unusually large revisions). Nevertheless, volumes have since normalised and the index stabilised.
The bounce back in prices reflects the unexpectedly rapid recovery in market activity since the easing of lockdown restrictions. Our initial expectations were for the pandemic to have a more chilling and lingering impact on activity, with pent-up demand filtering through only later this year. In contrast, the volume of new mortgage applications has rebounded beyond the pre-lockdown levels, and across the price spectrum. This is also supported by the volume of buyer leads, derived from web traffic to property portals (Figure 4), which has risen above expectations.
FNB
Moving Towards A 21st Century Conveyancing Process
UK - Today's Conveyancer
In all likelihood the words, ‘COVID-19 has been a game-changer’, will figure a lot in both the here and now, and in the future. That will certainly be the case for the conveyancing sector, where we were seeing a fairly progressive approach being taken to the changes required prior to lockdown, but where now the imperative for that change being realised has grown increasingly.
At our recent webinar on Virtual Conveyancing and tracking the conveyancing roadmap, it seemed somewhat bizarre that we were still talking about moving towards having a 21st Century conveyancing process – as if we have not already been living that century for the past 20 years and were still required to build it for the future.
The truth of the matter is that, by having to invoke a ‘call to arms’ to produce a 21st Century conveyancing process, it probably tells you all you need to know about where we currently are. Or rather, where we were until fairly recently.
Today's Conveyancer
Microsoft Word for Legal Practitioners
South Africa - Tech4Law
SA ATTORNEY RELEASES FIRST BOOK ON HOW TO REVOLUTIONISE THE WAY LEGAL DOCUMENTS ARE DRAFTED USING MICROSOFT WORD
Many Legal Practitioners nowadays work remotely and need to draft legal documents without the help of an assistant. Legal documents must be delivered fast, look professional and be accurate. Time and energy are wasted on panel-beating a document in a presentable format.
Anyone working with legal documents, requiring accuracy and professionalism, will benefit from the efficient use of the powerful functions MS Word has to offer.
Effective use of targeted functions mostly used in the legal environment, will lessen the time and energy spent of solving common drafting and editing frustrations. Get rid of incorrect numbered clauses, non-corresponding cross-references, manual tables of contents, repetitive tasks and other, format errors and other word processing hinderances.
Microsoft Word for Legal Practitioners is a practical 262 page book packed with full-colour screenshots and easy step-by-step instructions on how to turbo-charge workflow, improve accuracy, eliminate errors, automate routine tasks, and improve the level of consistent professionalism when drafting, editing and reviewing legal documents.
Tech4Law
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