Property boom boosts revenue

The property boom boosted government revenue last year, with transfer duties yielding R6.2 billion in the first 11 months of 2004, 55 percent more than the same period in 2003. According to Johan Snyman, director of building economists Medium-Term Forecasting Associates, "… the overall performance for the first 11 months still points to strong growth compared with the previous year, which of course is an indication of the strong underlying trend in the property market, especially residential property."

He believes that at least 60 to 70 percent of the revenue could be from residential property transfers. Clearly the fiscus has benefited from increased property prices and property economist Francois Viruly thinks it now has room to increase the threshold for exemption and to re-examine other property taxes like stamp duty on leases.

Banks meanwhile boosted their mortgage lending by 23 percent in the year to November. Of the big four banks, Standard bank posted the biggest gain - 40%- to R102.1 billion, while FNB increased the value of its loans by some 22 percent to R66.1 billion. ABSA is still the leader having funded R122.4 billion in homeloans - an increase of 24 percent. Nedbank had growth of 11 percent.

Relevant articles on Business Report:
Increased revenues and homeloans.