South Africa can be proud of its cadastre
South Africa - Rode Review
The following report appeared on 16 March 2019 in the English version of the Greek newspaper Kathimerini.
Greece, the only European country without a proper register of land ownership, is confident it will finally have one in place by 2021 after spending hundreds of millions of euros on a project that began more than 20 years ago. The lack of a complete record of property ownership across the country is a major barrier to investment, proper taxation and growth. It was once a buzzword for the bureaucratic morass of Greece, which was forced to request three international bailouts from 2010 to 2015 totalling 280 billion euros to stay afloat. On Wednesday, the country opened its biggest land registry office in Athens, home to nearly half of the Greek population. The government hopes the new centre will help speed up the process to compile a nationwide database as Athens residents will be able to register their assets in rural Greece without having to travel outside the capital. The new registry is a 3 000 m² cavernous office complex to the north of Athens with a green metal roof that was built to host gymnastics events at the 2004 Olympics. Staff at the new centre and in smaller offices outside the capital aim to establish an electronic database that will cover the whole country by 2021, a deadline agreed with Greece’s foreign creditors. Concluding the project has been a condition of each of Athens’s three bailouts, the last of which expired last August. (Reuters)
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Rode
Your parking bay could earn you money
South Africa - Property360
New digital platform offers drivers parking spaces at homes and businesses and is opportunity for extra income. Renting out your driveway, garage or parking bay could earn you up to R17000 a year, and could be the property play you have been looking for to make extra cash.
In the UK this market is known as the “driveway rental market” and was estimated to be worth £3.8 billion (more than R67bn at current exchanges rates) in 2018. A recently launched local website (basically Airbnb for parking) is offering a platform to earn extra cash by matching frustrated motorists looking for parking with homeowners with parking bays.
RentMyBay, developed by Capetonian Craig Murray, works this way: You let, in return for cash, a parking space you are under-utilising or not using at all to someone looking for guaranteed, secure parking for their vehicle.
Property360
Who owns the land in South Africa’s Communal Areas?
South Africa - iAfrica
The issue of land ownership and governance in communal areas continues to be hotly debated.
The communities are occupying and using land in communal areas in terms of a coherent system of indigenous law. They have their own lifestyle. They are being led by traditional leaders. They have their own custom. They are still practicing their own indigenous leadership system, through the process of culture.
In their areas, shared rules determine access to the land which is held in common. They have their own system of land allocation, use and occupation. Chiefs, headmen, headwomen and traditional councils have a role in land allocation to members of the communities. The decisions about the distribution of residential sites and arable and grazing land are taken by the members of the communities, chiefs, headmen, head women and traditional councils. The allocation of residential sites has to be witnessed by the community members. Disputes are dealt with by the chiefs, headmen, head women and traditional councils. When outsiders want to use land for particular purposes, for example for business, they need to approach the community members, chiefs, headmen, head women and traditional councils for permission.
Some traditional leaders are corrupt and violate human rights of the members of their communities. They sell communal land to businessmen and businesswomen without consulting the communities. They are demanding residents to pay excessive tribal levies and other different kinds of taxes.
iAfrica.com
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