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| Investor Note on National Budget Mauritius 2010: Foundations for a Bright Future |
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Inclusive, empowered and resilient growth over the last four and a half years have transformed the Mauritian economy and now prepare the way for a bright future.
The National Budget 2010 provides comfort to the investor community that the country will return to its growth path of over 5% p.a by 2011. In the face of the world’s most severe crisis, Mauritius has managed to come out relatively unscathed with a reasonable growth rate of 2.3% in 2009 and around 4% in 2010. The Mauritius financial services sector has faired relatively well despite the crisis. ICT and IT-enabled services have grown significantly becoming a larger GDP contributer than sugar. While textiles and tourism have suffered with the crisis, the number of tourist arrivals is expected to pick up in 2010 and textile, which was on a recovery path just prior to the crisis, should also show some improvement.
| Board of Investment Mauritius , 19-11-2009 |
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| Do Not Skimp On Home Insurance |
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The financial difficulties that many homeowners have experienced over the last year or more have led to some reneging on their home insurance payments, but this should be avoided even if it means making drastic cuts elsewhere.
So says Lanice Steward, MD of Anne Porter Knight Frank, who adds that although taking out an insurance policy is usually obligatory if the home is bonded, it sometimes happens that this is overlooked if there is no registered bond.
Sometimes, said Steward, the property's insurance policy will have lapsed because it was linked to the bond, which has then been paid off without the bondholder realising that this has resulted in his policy being cancelled.
"Prior to taking transfer, the buyer must make sure that he knows when the insurance risk passes to him. This can be on occupation or on taking transfer. Sometimes, the buyer is not aware of this and finds himself a few weeks down the line the owner of a damaged or burnt out home which is not covered by insurance."
Sometimes, said Steward, the property's insurance policy will have lapsed because it was linked to the bond, which has then been paid off without the bondholder realising that this has resulted in his policy being cancelled.
These warnings, she added, have gained a new relevancy in the light of the latest evidence that global warming will make the Western Cape hotter, drier and windier – and more prone to floods and storms.
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| Print Giving Way to the Web in South African Real Estate |
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Print is steadily losing ground as the Internet becomes the number one advertising medium for estate agents, a new survey shows.
The results of the just-released poll show that local or community newspapers are now the only print options that command more support than the Internet, with 54% of agents regularly placing adverts in these papers while 47% make use of online property portals to showcase their stock.
What is more, 74 percent of agents now also regard their company websites as important advertising channels.
By contrast, only 34% of agents advertise in the property magazines that are distributed for free, and only 29% support the weekly property supplements to major newspapers. Even fewer make use of glossy property magazines (15%) and just a handful (3%) ever advertise on TV.
| Institute of Estate Agents, 30-10-2009 |
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| Boschendal Founder Estates |
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Franschhoek has been called the Valley of Visions. The first visionary was the French Huguenot Jean le Long, a somewhat vague figure who in 1685 found this beautiful piece of Cape landscape where elephants and lions roamed, and began farming here.
In 1694 the Huguenot brothers Pierre and Jacques de Villiers sought refuge in the Drakenstein Valley.
They and their descendants made Boschendal their home for 180 years and left behind a legacy of stately gabled homes, thatched cottages and a noble tradition of wine making, which remains to this day.
In 1896, Cecil John Rhodes arrived at the beautiful valley of vines to find it wrecked by vine phylloxera (a destructive pest). His idea was to switch from grapes to fruit so he bought Boschendal and 10 farms in the area, established Rhodes Fruit Farms and a canning factory and made plans to export the products via his Cape-to-Cairo railway.
Now Clive Venning is set to stamp his vision on the six historic homesteads and 2 240ha spread; a vision which won over owners, Anglo American Farms Limited (Amfarms) in 2003.
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| Wineland Attractions on a River near the Seaside |
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Vast vineyard plantations coupled with lavender fields and olive groves plus the panaromic surrounds of a lagoon, ocean and mountain offer beautiful scenic views to prospective residents of the Benguela Cove Lagoon Wine Estate.
The estate, an hour from Cape Town and 10km from Hermanus, encompasses both a country wineland ambience and the allure of coastal attractions.
Situated on the banks of the Botrivier Lagoon, in the acclaimed Walker Bay Wine region, the estate is made of 124 residential stands of which 60 have been sold. It was launched in July 2005.
Priced from R2m to R5m, the stands average from 2000m2 with some double plots over 4000m2.
Completed homes on sale are priced from R7m to R15m and others are currently under construction. The homes adhere to specific architectural controls which give consideration to the environment, encouraging the use of natural building materials and reflecting contemporary and classic designs. Home owners can choose from four house types namely Ridge, Barn, Lagoon and Courtyard.
The estate offers a private nature reserve, a boutique hotel, restaurant plus tennis facilities, boating, fishing, water skiing and two deep water jetties for the outdoor enthusiast.
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| Nelspruit Retirement Estate On Show |
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The first show houses in Bateleur Estate, a retirement development just outside Nelspruit, are attracting interest even while they are being completed.
The estate aims to provide luxury living in a secure, yet natural environment for retirees and people older than 50.
With baby boomers reaching retirement age there is a marked increase in demand for retirement living that offers more than the traditional 'old-age home'. Many retirees are still fit and healthy and require a lifestyle option that suits their current status but which will also provide facilities needed in later years, and Bateleur Estate neatly fits this requirement.
The 200ha lifestyle estate will offer walking trails and jogging routes through the 60ha portion that will remain undeveloped, as well as sporting facilities such as tennis courts, bowling greens, a swimming pool and gym. More sedate options will include a library and recreation hall, restaurant, bar area and billiards room while a carpentry and welding workshop is being planned to cater for hobbyists.
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| Now for the Good News..... |
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Homeowners are anxiously seeking signs that the property market downslide is levelling off. Unfortunately, there are mixed signals from analysts, but there are more rays of light than black clouds.
A number of property sector analysts are slowly reaching the conclusion that national house price inflation has finally bottomed, or is levelling off. Furthermore, there are signs that housing is at last becoming more affordable. However, there are still some economists who consider that a significant shift will only become apparent towards the end of the year or early in 2010.
Absa's August report says that house price deflation is near the lower turning point on a year-on-year basis, while month –on- month deflation slowed down further in July after bottoming in March this year.
The report forecasts an annual drop in house prices for 2009 of a nominal 10%, which in real terms (allowing for inflation) is around 3,5%.
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| Has The Property Market Bottomed? |
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The South African property market has experienced a steady decline in property price growth since the last quarter of 2007.
This growth decline eventually became negative growth and the extent of this property price decline varies from 5% to 20%, depending which sources you refer to and the geographical area under discussion.
A burning question in the minds of both buyers and sellers at present is: What will happen to property prices going forward, or more critically, when will property prices move into positive growth again? Tony Ketcher, managing director of Seeff Properties Randburg, believes that property prices have bottomed, and explains why.
"There are a number of simple facts which lead me to believe the property prices may have bottomed. It is, however, too early to expect that we will see any kind of growth in prices for the next 18 – 24 months.
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| South African Property Market Past Its Worst |
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Although Lightstone's National Repeat Sales house price inflation is still slightly negative year on year, it appears that the House Price Index bottomed out at the beginning of 2009 and that house prices are actually now on a modest upward trend, according to the latest Lightstone house price index released on Wednesday.
The report showed that monthly house price inflation (which tracks the month-on-month house price trend) was up 0,24% from March to April.
"This continues the positive trend we have been monitoring since January and appears to confirm that recent house price growth has moved out of negative into modest positive territory," said Lightstone.
"Given the volatility of monthly house price inflation, we have been cautious to confirm this positive trend, but four consecutive months of positive monthly figures gives us the confidence to confirm that house price are on the rise again."
Projecting forward to July, annual house price inflation is now effectively at 0%, which suggests that we have avoided the major house price drops experienced in foreign markets, said Lightstone.
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| ESTATA Wins Prestigious CNBC Property Portal Africa Award 2009 |
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ESTATA is delighted to announce that it has won an award in the category of Property Portal Africa.
We would hereby like to inform you that ESTATA has won the prestigious CNBC Property Portal Africa Award. The International Property Awards is open to residential and commercial property professionals from around the globe. The event is part of the International Property Awards, the world’s most prestigious competition dedicated to finding the best real estate professionals across the globe. The fact that ESTATA has won one of these coveted awards is proof that South Africa is not only able to compete at this level but also triumph within the highly competitive Europe and Africa property arenas.
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