immoafrica blog

Auctioneering of property now the preferred method for many residential sellers. A major change in the residential property sector is taking place without many people being aware of it, says Andre Piguet and Ursula Otto, franchisees of the Rawson Properties Mossel Bay franchise – and their newly acquired Rawson Auctions Garden Route franchise. The change [...](more...)

Many bargain buys still “out there” for the shrewd investor. The South African residential property market can certainly still offer investment buyers bargains at anything from 20 to 50% below their former market value. This was said recently by Bill Rawson, Chairman of the Rawson Property Group, who is still investing steadily in this field. [...](more...)

Knowledge Factory has moved its Property Clock back by one minute to 23 minutes to the hour. The Clock measures high-level national trends in the residential real-estate market. It retreated by 5 minutes in 2011 and by 2 minutes in 2012. Insight* Analyst, Dieter Deppisch, comments: “The decision to move our Property Clock back by [...](more...)

Market on the move as home loan applications rise 23%. Home buying activity has increased substantially over the past 12 months, even though only about four out of every 10 bonds granted are for 100% of the purchase price. That’s the word from Rudi Botha, CEO of BetterBond, SA’s biggest mortgage originator, who notes that [...](more...)

Knowledge Factory has moved its Property Clock back by one minute to 22 minutes to the hour. The Clock measures high-level national trends in the residential real-estate market. It retreated by 5 minutes in 2011 and moved forward by one minute in March 2012. Insight* Analyst, Dieter Deppisch, comments: “Statistics SA’s release of the 2011 [...](more...)

A ”reduction” (e.g. balsamic reduction) is a process of intensifying the flavour of a liquid mixture by boiling it until the sauce is reduced to a concentrate. Each component of the mixture evaporates at slightly different temperatures. The reduction, though less voluminous than the original, is rendered more valuable through the process. The real-estate industry [...](more...)

Part 1: Are you ready for a new home? Purchasing or selling a property is probably one of the most stressful things you could go through in life, and when it comes to the process, financing and legalities thereof most people become overwhelmed. It includes a lot of terms and forms that you may not [...](more...)

Thursday’s Reserve South African Reserve Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee Meeting resulted in an unexpected cut in interest rates by 50 basis points. The new repo rate is now 5%, while the prime rate now stands at 8.5%. This is the first cut in almost two years, pointing that South Africa might not be as unaffected(more...)

London house prices surge by as much as ten percent. Euro crisis and Olympic Games increase international demand for property and increasingly sought after; Buy-to-let investments. London’s residential property market is one of the most dynamic in the world. High-end real estate in the British capital is still regarded as a save haven for secure [...](more...)

Definition: SAVING – income not spent, deferred consumption, expenditure reduction. Every economy measures its health on the balance between income and expenditure. While consumption creates jobs, pays salaries and grows industry, consumption when not funded by income, requires credit. Most people cannot afford to purchase a home without credit, without a mortgage loan. So the ongoing [...](more...)

Ask the sellers who priced their properties correctly, chose the right agent and made sure their homes were attractive to buyers, and they’ll say: “The market’s good!”(more...)

We are excited to announce our syndication with Prop Data and proud to be affiliated with a company focused on Real Estate and driven by internet technology. Since 1999 Prop Data has assisted hundreds of leading real estate companies to launch and maintain a successful presence on the World Wide Web. By combining Prop Data’s [...](more...)

You have decided that you’re ready to plunge into the world of real estate investment. Recent media articles have done a good job of making you doubt your decision. After all, ‘the property market could not recover for another few years’, ‘the economic crisis might continue for years to come’, ‘real estate investing is out [...](more...)

Buy-to-let buying remains weak, with the FNB Estate Agent Survey pointing to only very slight improvement, and agents don’t appear to expect much to change in the near term. In an environment where the household sector is under significant financial pressure, basics are key, and primary residential demand is king. This is visible in ongoing [...](more...)