The primary aim of investing in listed property is to get a source of income and capital growth comes over time.

This is according to Keillen Ndlovu, head of Listed Property Funds and portfolio manager of the STANLIB Property Income Fund.

Ndlovu explains many people aspire to own property, however, buying physical property is expensive making it impossible for many to get into the market.

Just because you cannot buy a home doesn’t mean you cannot enter the market.

Investors and would-be buyers can invest in listed property by buying shares directly on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).
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Qualifications a must for auctioneers
The new rulings requiring auctioneers to have recognised NQF4 and NQF5 qualifications (the latter in the case of principals) are to be welcomed because they will introduce a measure of regulation and stability to the auction industry. 

This is according toTanya Jovanovski, principal for Rawson Auctions in the Western Cape, who says the allegation that the auctioneering industry had been subject to too few controls is probably valid and some form of tightening up is therefore necessary. 

As in the estate agency world, she says, the introduction of compulsory qualifications will weed out the untrained and the unqualified and should lead to those who are left in the profession being more respected.  

This, therefore, is a good move on the part of the South African Institute of Auctioneers, she says. 
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Buy a home and start getting rich
If you want to start getting wealthy, do whatever it takes now to get a home loan and buy a home. If you want to stay poor, get a personal loan and spend it on all the things that make you feel rich now. 

That’s the real – and simple - choice facing young South Africans at the moment, says Rudi Botha, CEO of BetterBond, the country’s biggest mortgage originator.

“Right now, too many people are confusing the trappings of wealth – like designer clothes and furniture, luxury cars and overseas holidays – with real wealth, which begins with acquiring assets that are going to keep growing in value.” 

And this misconception, he says, is being fuelled by all-to-easy access to credit cards and huge personal loans as the banks show a preference for short-term, unsecured lending over long-term home loans that are secured by property. 

This is revealed in the latest figures provided by the National Credit Regulator, which show that the year-on-year growth in mortgage lending during the first quarter of this year was only 3.43%, compared with a 26.46% growth in short-term lending and a 49.40% growth in unsecured lending such as
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When a lease expires and tenant stays
It often happens that private landlords and their tenants forget the date that their lease agreement is due to expire and months can go by where there is no signed agreement in place. 

This is according to Lanice Steward, managing director of Anne Porter Knight Frank, who the questions many ask are: “What is the legal position, what is the status of the lease and does it still exist?” 

She says they often find the owner and his tenant haven’t had a contract for two or three years and nether are not sure where each party stands. 

In a court case mentioned in a recent Smith Tabata Buchanan Boyes law update newsletter between Winkelshoek Wynkelders and Jamadu Restaurant, the court noted that in terms of the so-called “tacit relocation of the lease” principles, on the termination of a lease after a fixed period of time, it will be presumed to be renewed month by month but only for a month, says Steward.  
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Banks give fewer 100% home loans
South African banks are reportedly tightening their purse strings on lending as concerns of household debt levels continue, says originator.

A sharp drop in the number of 100 percent home loans granted in August compared with June and July indicates that the banks, concerned about the high levels of household debt, are once more tightening up on credit qualification requirements for prospective homebuyers.

This is according to Rudi Botha, chief executive officer of BetterBond, who says their statistics reveal that the percentage of home loans granted for 100 percent of the property purchase price fell to 35 percent in August from 39 percent in July and 41 percent in June.

Botha says it is obvious, banks are worried by the fact that the average household debt to income ratio is still stuck at around 75 percent at a time when consumers are facing rising energy, water, transport, food, education and medical costs that will undoubtedly eat into whatever disposable income they have left, and limit their ability to make bond repayments.
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Dispute resolution training launched
A first training programme on dispute resolution has been launched in South Africa by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

With the South African government about to make it mandatory for all court cases to go through a mediation process before they can be set down for trial, the RICS has launched an internationally accredited mediation training programme in this country.

Specifically designed for professionals - both legal and non-legal, working in the built and other commercial environments, the first intensive five-day training course was held at Zevenwacht Wine Estate in Kuils River, Cape Town in August.

This non-residential course comprises two modules, the first being an Introduction to Mediation and Dispute Resolution Management, while the second moduleis the RICS Accredited Mediator Training.

The programme is conducted by Dr John Fletcher, director of RICS Alternative Dispute Resolution Services worldwide.
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Information Act: banks and customers
A bank’s duty to keep its customer’s information confidential is seen as an express or implied term of the bank and customer contract.

However, banker-client confidentiality is not a settled issue in our law, explains Rishal Bipraj, a candidate attorney in the commercial department at Garlicke & Bousfield Inc.

Bipraj says in a 1991 case (Densam (Pty) Ltd v Cywilnat (Pty) Ltd), the court sidestepped the issue and simply assumed that such a rule existed in South African law, having been imported from the English case of Tournier v National Provincial and Union Bank of England.

That case, however, provided for four distinct situations in which disclosure of a client’s information is justfied, one of which is, where disclosure is under compulsion by law.

The procedure for accessing information through the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) may be an example of Tournier’s “compulsion by law” category. 
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