Tuesday 23 December 2008

UAE Property Market and 2009 for you


So its not all bad news there are still some good things happening out there in the UAE.
Just get into the right place and space

Rental Finance is available from Independent Finance in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah and Ajman
Banks still offer mortgages up to 85% but with conditions

then there is....

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank has reported that its mortgage volumes have halved while mortgage applications are down from 35-45 to 15 per month. The bank has also increased its mortgage rates from 7.5% to 9.5% and dropped its loan-to-value (LTV) ratio from 90% to 70%, although 85% is available for customers with the best risk profiles. The Emirates Inter-bank Rate (Eibor) has appreciated significantly above Libor over the past few months, making UAE home loans particularly expensive. Banks are also worried about possible price declines, so they are demanding more in down payments. HSBC has cut LTVs from 85% to 60% for apartments, and to 70% on villas. Lloyds TSB will only make loans on villas, and not apartments.

The local mortgage companies Tamweel and Amlak have cut LTVs to 75% and 65% respectively, and are in the process of merging their operations. Both previously raised their money in mortgage securitisations that are now impossible in the current market. Local liquidity has become very tight, as the UAE has suffered both an exodus of cash from falling stock markets and from revaluation speculators, while raising money internationally has become very difficult during the global financial crisis. Ironically the Governor of the UAE Central Bank said last week that there was now far more enthusiasm for the GCC single currency - and that could well mean a revaluation is back on the agenda in the near future. However, the mortgage market in the UAE is very small by comparison with most housing markets of the world, and could indeed be one of the smallest. The majority of local housing transactions are made in cash, and so the tightening of housing credit is not the end of the world.

It is, however, clearly the end of house price increases for the time being, and for people who want to sell out in a hurry then big discounts will be necessary. Apartments are far more difficult to sell than villas. For off-plan apartments, particularly in the less central locations, it is probably impossible to sell at any price because no buyer will be willing to take the risk of future price falls. New off-plan sales have stopped. Whether it proves to be the case that the UAE is a case of last-in, first-out in the global real estate recession remains to be seen. A government initiative to keep credit flowing to the housing sector would seem necessary to avoid a true real estate crash in the emirates which would be damaging to the long-term interests of the country as an investment safe haven. That said, the problem is small enough and the solutions easy enough to implement for the government to avoid the kind of property meltdown now happening in developed markets. Indeed, the UAE could be in a position to attract new investment from these troubled countries if it plays its hand correctly. Then the market shakeout of the next few months would emerge as a bull-market correction and not a crash, and those panicking and selling out for a big discount would look rather foolish

sooo heres my message for now

This is what makes me feel alive news like this and I wake up daily feeling like today is just a beautiful day. Then I know that I can ignore the bad news and read only the good news, because I am spreading it myself and that's what I can do to make it better. 2009 c'mon baby

Thursday 11 December 2008

And The TREND begins!

South Africa's latest interest rate: 15%



The reserve bank issued a notice late this afternoon to say that the repo rate was dropping by 50 basis points...



I think a great move and hopefully a super trend.

We should see a nice decline by April 2009 of around 200 basis points I believe.


Anyways, the SA Reserve Bank Christmas gift to all South Africans.



WizardMan Out.

Feel Good People

I don't know where this article or clipping came from, but it was sent to me via email and I want to share this with the world....

It's is a motivational writing that actually gave me goosebumps. Read it, and enjoy.

Well, 2008 has certainly given us something to think about!

I woke up this morning and said to myself, what a beautiful morning, now what am I going to do to make it better!

What really got me going was while travelling I was thinking how the future of the world was pumping in the beginning of January 2008 and we all had some serious aspirations and resolutions for the year AND suddenly everyone, everywhere is talking about the credit crunch, the burst bubble and suddenly everyone is cutting costs, staying at home for the holidays and holding off buying that property they were thinking of getting, selling their expensive cars, panic, panic, panic.!!

Well we suddenly hear of a recession in America, Europe and the global markets are taking a bombing, governments are bailing out and talking about bailouts and what are we heading for, the Credit Tsunami of all Tsunami's......................

So when I woke up this morning and saw what a beautiful day it was, I refused to panic!

Guess what? This is not the first time there's been a situation like this. Every few years we experience these kind of events. We experience very exciting and nail biting massive economic growth, everyone is on a high and the "investors" are buying whole floors of apartments to be built in the future and selling them off in a quick profit turn with numbers that makes your head spin. We all want in, now, today!! We have and share holiday homes in Mauritius, Thailand, Spain, wherever the sun shines and you can suntan! And the cars, man, enough to make your head spin.

Guess what! The positivity and pump and hype gets so ahead of itself and the world economies start to overheat and actually some even have a meltdown, and then panic sets in because the economy seems to be collapsing when in actual fact it's simply making adjustments back to a some form of normality.

So what's happened before, we have seen many stock market crashes in the world, we have seen interest rates hit 25% and property prices crashing and you couldn't give away your house. In 2001 we had 9/11 and America has been at war since reinventing its economy. We had a Christmas day tsunami and we all mourned together. Oil prices jumped through the roof and then plummeted. The UN became the biggest freebie hand out organisation in history(talk about making a living out of donations mmmm), Mumbai had its worst day in years with the attacks recently and Mugabe has let his people die of cholera for power. Lehman brothers started the rot and all those guru books we read over the last thirty years are all being thrown out the window as being wrong, while the new gurus tell us - GET BACK TO BASICS and guess what.......on each of these occasions everyone thought it was the end of the world and that there was no light at the end of the tunnel and each time, believe it or not, the world did not actually end, it recovered and in fact things continued to get better.

So, I am sure that 2009 will be a far tougher year than we expected but we must be smart and be ready for what is coming at us. This means each day when you get up think what a beautiful morning, "now what am I going to do to make it better" - get ready for the next wave of life.

Make a positive mental note of everything that is happening now, because it will happen again and again, and if you don't recognize the symptoms you'll be suckered into the same negativity, and forget to look for the opportunities. So what if you have to work harder. You have been doing so for years.

It's easy to be negative. Subconsciously, you want to be negative! Whenever you open the papers they tell you about the worst and most vicious story and the most corrupt politicians and global warming. Why don't they dedicate more pages to the fact that there are great Samaritans out there helping others and that the white Lions of Timbavati have been saved from extinction? Because bad news sells(Bad news is Good). Good news is boring (Good news is bad).

Everyday we still have great weather and the demand from mankind continues to accelerate for resources food, fuel and, and and .... of course the governments around the world are bailing people out and man in his wisdom is working flat out to ensure we survive and restart the world economies and there is a birth of a massive and all-encompassing new industry happening as we speak. We just have not named it yet.

So I smile and strangely quite contently continue to deal with high rents, managing costs, bad drivers, staff needs, sharing problems, talking, dealing with irate clients, dealing with irritating bank staff, construction and dust as a daily occurrence, 45 degree summers, sand storms, late night flights, skype, bad coffee, a poor exchange rate, Zaatar(Thanks prince for the into), free advertising, handing out pamphlets, working with government departments, short notice for holidays and making my own bed daily.

This is what makes me feel alive and I wake up daily feeling like today is just a beautiful day. Then I know that I can ignore the bad news and read only the good news, because I am spreading it myself and that's what I can do to make it better.
JUST FEEL GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday 5 December 2008

BLOG Updates

Hi All...

I do apologise for the wierd posts that will be updating your RSS feeds and mailboxes, but we've realised that ease of use and navigation across posts is not exactly the easiest thing in the world on our South African Property BLOG, so we're going to make your lives easier.

HOWEVER, to do this, I need to publish some posts that will mean almost nothing to you all.
If you like them, woohooo... if you don't, please don't leave us yet. I can guarantee some good content coming soon.

WizardMan Out

Absa home loans

Absa Group Limited is one of South Africa's largest financial services organisations, serving personal, commercial and corporate customers in South Africa.

The ABSA Group interacts with its customers through a combination of physical and electronic channels, offering a comprehensive range of banking services, (from ABSA's basic products and services for the low-income personal market to customised solutions for the commercial and corporate markets), bank assurance and wealth management products and services.

We at SA Property and Wizard have daily contact and dealings with ABSA home loans and ABSA bank and hence we feel the need to put across our opinions and news pertaining to this massive banking GIANT.

Welcome to the ABSA home loans section of our site.

SA Property Articles & Posts


2008

Absa Bank - SIGH!!!!!!!!!!!!
Absa Home Loans - MyHome, affordable housing
Absa Home Loans - No more 100% bonds
Absa Home Loans - Affordable home loan solutions
Absa Home Loans - Latest lending policies
Absa Home Loans - Flexi Reserve policy changes
Absa Home Loans - New Credit Lending Policies
Absa Home Loans - Fixed Rate Policy
Absa Home Loans - New international mortgage offerings

2007
Absa Home Loans - Charging too much
Absa Home Loans - Flexi Bond Access Bond
Absa Home Loans - WAKE UP!!!!
Absa Home Loans - Winter Special...
Absa Home Loans - Win a R1, 000, 000.00 with ABSA

Absa Bank - SIGH


*SIGH*


*sigh*


*sigh*


Is that how you're feeling? Is it maybe a long tough year just drawing to a close with the only thing that you're able to muster out of your mouth that makes any sense a sigh?


Well, Let me tell you a little story that's enough to make you want to cry never mind sigh.


ABSA home loans at the moment seem to be a bank that's taking strain.

With all the current publicity going on and a number of scandals that seem to be crawling out of the woodwork, ABSA have taken a knock.....


The department that seems to have been affected the most, is ABSA Home Loans. Apparently with a new state of the art home loans system that they've put into place, ABSA don't seem to be able to assist you on the phone at the moment.


Apparently 2 weeks behind on applications, and systems so slow that the agents are saying they actually cannot work on them, what in the world is ABSA doing? I've had clients waiting 2 - 4 weeks for replies on bond applications, IS THIS ACCEPTABLE, when their turn around times are meant to be in the region of 3 working days?


ABSA, I think it's time you caught a wake up. Your competitors are steaming ahead of you right now and in these tough economic conditions that we're facing, I don't think you guys can afford to loose any good deals because of poor service levels.


Pick it up boys, pick it up quick!


WizardMan Out!