My Blog

Property tax: Don’t fall foul of SARS

October 11, 2009 by Mariska · Leave a Comment 

Know the rules, or pay up
Recently an angry seller demanded the blood of the estate agent who had sold her Blouberg, Cape Town, flat. The seller, relocating to Johannesburg, was hit with an unexpected tax bill. She hadn’t realised the property, held in a Close Corporation (CC), would incur Capital Gains Tax (CGT). Neither, astonishingly, [...]

Standard Bank opens the credit gates

September 2, 2009 by Mariska · Leave a Comment 

They’re back! 104% home loans for R1m homes – and more.
Announcement
Johannesburg 1 September 2009 – Standard Bank has recently increased its risk acceptance rate in its Home Loan, and Credit Card divisions. The changes made to Standard Bank’s risk appetite have been specifically designed to benefit first-time entrants into the housing and general credit [...]

Residential property prices are perking up

September 1, 2009 by Mariska · Leave a Comment 

Jackie Cameron
25 August 2009
So why don’t we all feel cheerful?
A property sales’ consultant in a foul mood phoned me this week to vent some spleen. Why, he demanded to know, do people visit show houses that are hopelessly beyond their financial reach, presumably wasting time for themselves and the estate agency person on duty in [...]

SA’s house prices are on the rise

September 1, 2009 by Mariska · Leave a Comment 

Andrew Watt*
19 August 2009
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.   Monthly house price inflation (which [...]