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Residential property price growth slows sharply
Business Report - South Africa
Latest data on residential property prices show that growth has slowed sharply. The average rate of increase in 2006 fell to 9.8 percent from 24.7 percent in 2005, according to Standard Bank.

Measured over the 12 months to December, prices rose 6.4 percent from about 8 percent in October and November. This compares with growth of 17.5 percent in the 12 months to December 2005.

"The figure is very much in line with our expectations," said Gina Schoeman, a Standard Bank property economist, who predicted price growth would remain in single digits this year before rising at double-digit levels next year.

Confirmation that price growth is likely to stagnate this year comes from the relationship between both mortgage instalments and house prices to rental income.
Business Report

Finance
Dispatch - South Africa
New legislation has been proposed that could limit the rights of squatters in favour of land owners.

The Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Amendment Bill of 2006 was approved at the Cabinet's last meeting in December and is open for public comment until February 2.

The bill aims to address "various interpretation and implementation problems" which have been identified since the original Act came into operation in June 1998.

One of the groundbreaking proposals is to amend the Act so that it no longer applies to people who refuse to vacate a building after their tenancy agreements have been validly terminated.

"The Act should cover only those persons who unlawfully invade land without the prior consent of the landowner or person in charge of land," it reads.
Dispatch.co.za

Municipal rates
Business Day - South Africa
THE dawn of the new year is traditionally a time to reflect on the past, reinvent oneself and start afresh. And so it is with the municipal rates system used by Johannesburg, SA's most populous city and the engine of the national economy. It remains to be seen, however, whether the city authorities will use wisely the clean slate they have been granted through the long-awaited implementation of the Property Rates Act, or inflict on its ratepayers another South African New Year tradition - the monumental hangover.

The Act, which was passed in 1998 and implemented in some towns and cities up to four years ago, was intended to standardise the municipal rating system nationally and get rid of the anomalies - and inequities - that had come about through the implementation of different systems in different parts of the country during the apartheid era. These were plainly long overdue for correction - the formation of metropolitan government structures in the bigger cities, which entailed the merger of several smaller councils that were previously autonomous towns, resulted in numerous instances where poor, underserviced communities were paying higher rates than their counterparts in the leafy suburbs.
Business Day

A dull 2007 for SA's home market
Business.iafrica.com - South Africa
If you think that the nominal house price growth forecast for 2007 of 10 percent is low, the real growth of home prices - the price excluding inflation - is rather shocking, coming to just 3 percent. ABSA's property economist explains.

Bruce Whitfield:
Welcome to the property economist from ABSA, Jacques du Toit, who came out with a preview of what he expects out of the South African property market in 2007. But first, Jacques, average house growth in 2006 - quite a lot slower than the preceding years?

Jacques du Toit:
Yes Bruce, we have seen growth of around about, just above 15 percent during the course of last year, compared to 22.7 percent in 2005 and a whopping 32 percent in 2004. So yes, much lower to what we have experienced over the previous two years.

Bruce Whitfield:
Now what you are referring to there is the nominal growth in house prices?

Jacques du Toit:
Yes.
Business.iafrica.com

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