Credit and mortgage advances
South Africa - Absa
Growth in household credit balances accelerated in 2018 from 2017
The value of outstanding credit balances in the South African household sector increased by 5,7% to R1 630,2 billion in 2018 after rising by 3,8% in 2017. Growth in both secured and unsecured credit balances improved in 2018 from 2017.
Growth in the value of household secured credit balances (R1 240,3 billion and 76,1% of total household credit balances) increased to 4,6% in 2018 compared with growth of 4,1% in 2017. The uptick in growth in secured balances in 2018 came on the back of higher growth in household mortgage balances (see below), with instalment sales balances (22,5% of household secured balances and largely related to vehicle finance) growing by 6,8% last year compared with growth of 6,5% in 2017.
Household unsecured credit balances (R389,9 billion and 23,9% of total household credit balances) increased by 9,2% last year after rising by 3,1% in 2017. The component of general loans and advances (59,3% of household unsecured credit balances) accelerated by 10,6% in 2018 compared with growth of only 2,7% in 2017. Growth in outstanding credit card balances (29% share in household unsecured credit balances) increased to 7,6% last year from 3,8% in 2017. Overdraft credit balances (11,7% of unsecured balances) showed growth of 6,8% in 2018 after growing by 3,6% in 2017.
Credit and mortgage advances
Home sharing has become a widening trend
South Africa - Property360
Costs and security concerns mean it’s not just students and young professionals who choose to live with others
The house-sharing trend is fast evolving beyond the student market as more South Africans turn to communal living as a means to combat rising rents, living costs and crime levels.
Growing numbers of older individuals living away from family – and those who have suffered divorce or the death or a spouse – are also looking for community in shared living, say local real estate agencies. Although the trend is still mainly seen in the student market, says Liezl Hesketh, founder of free online property matching website TheRoomLink, professionals and older, single women are increasingly moving into house shares.
Property360
Opinion piece: Conveyancing needs to get a move on – and embrace technology
UK - PropertyIndustryEye
Henry Ford, of Ford Motors fame, once said: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
He was talking about the early days of the motor car – but he could have been talking about the conveyancing industry.
This is because, if you ask a lawyer how to improve the way they carry out conveyancing, they will reply that “You can’t’” or “Just do it quicker” – ie get a faster horse.
In our experience, lawyers have hardly changed their approach to conveyancing in the last ten years – the only noticeable improvements being email use and ordering title documents and searches online. Hardly innovation.
As an agent, you might think this sounds like a “you” problem. However, it’s actually a “me” problem, because unless new approaches are adopted, transaction timescales will only continue to get worse. Which helps neither clients wanting to move nor agents needing deals to go through.
PropertyIndustryEye
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