Buy-to-let, it's not dead, it's just tough!

Pre NCA people were reveling in the buy-to-let market. With home loans being dished out to South Africans at a rate of knots and affordability not even coming into the equation, people were really making alot of money in the buy-to-let market.

South Africans weren't feeling the brunt of the home loans with interest rates being at a lovely 9.5% and living costs, including fuel, bread and your daily expenses were at an all time low.

Many have made a absolute fortune from buy-to-let, but the credit crunch threatens the sector.

Buy-to-let is not dead!!! Even with the falling property prices in South Africa and constant pressure on our interest rates, the only thing that's changed, is that it's become tougher. In fact many landlords are looking chuffed saying prospects are looking bright right now, for the first time in years, because the housing market is weakening. It's become a buyers market again and that's a good thing.

The real trick to buy-to-let though is that your rental needs to cover a minimum on 85% of you home loan. Rising property prices and interest rates have made this target extremely tough to achieve but at the same time have helped increase the rental market and value thereof.

Prices are not falling quite the way we've wanted them to and the penny has still to drop with vendors, but the market is changing. We've had signs of downturns in prices before, but they haven't materialised. This time it's for real...

Keep your eye out for Buy-to-let...

Absa Home Loans: International Mortgages

Finally... Ladies and gentlemen. ABSA home loans have come to the party.

There is hope for people who struggle to invest in the South African Property Market.

Together, Barclays and Absa have designed a proposition making it possible for South African’s wishing to buy property abroad as well as non-South African residents looking to invest in South Africa. Whether non-residents purchase property as holiday homes, or for investment purposes, Absa has a dedicated team of specialist available to assist our customers through the process. When it comes to buying in the UK or in various countries where Barclays has a presence, Absa International Mortgages will initially intercede on behalf of South African customers who wish to make use of Barclays International Mortgage Services to acquire property off-shore.

The product works like a normal home loan, except the loan amounts and conditions are subject to the exchange control policy as set by the government and the Reserve Bank. The amount of capital each SA citizen is allowed to take out of the country is R2-million per person at present. SA citizens can apply for additional exchange control approval to by property in SADC countries.

Our distribution footprint:
We will be extending this offer to countries in which Barclays have a presence, countries include but are not limited to the following as this list will continue to expand as we extend our offer to include countries in which Barclays has a presence:

Kenya, Spain, Dubai
Ghana, Italy, United Arab Emirates
Botswana, Portugal
Mauritius, France
Seychelles, Switzerland

This is an incredibly bold move by ABSA home loans and this offering will open up a whole new business mind set in South Africa. Without having to rely of 50% loans from mortgage originators overseas we can now finance these loans in our own comfort through ABSA Home Loans.

If this is something that gets your toes tingling and you're interested in finding out more about this offer please feel free to contact the http://www.wizardmidrand.com/home-loans/bond-application-form.html

Formula 1 & Real Estate in South Africa

With Raikkonens 16th win of his career and after watching Ferrari kick some serious rear in Malaysia this weekend I was hit by a sudden brain wave... The more people that support formula 1 and Ferrari specifically, the lower our cost of housing will become in the South African Property market...

This is how it works!

If more people start watching Formula 1 racing it's inevitable that more people will start supporting Ferrari... (With Ferrari being such a dominant force in racing today)

The more people that support Ferrari, the more people will start using Shell fuel

If more people use Shell fuel, Shell will become the dominant supplier of FUEL in South Africa.

In doing so they will become the controllers of the FUEL price and will most likely hike it up.

In hiking up our FUEL price the cost of living increases and so will inflation (South Africa hasn't quite learnt how to curb this)

With a hike in inflation they will have to increase the home loan interest rates.

HENCE the drop in the prices of housing!

Hope you all had a fabulous Easter Weekend... Enjoy your week.

WizardMan Out!

Gloomy Times Ahead - Or Light at the end of the Property Tunnel

I'm not one for copying content and placing it on my site, but after reading this article from FNB's home loan and property expert John Loos I think it should be shared with everyone. Is the South African property market taking a turn for the worse? Read on and see what the pro's have to say...

Copied from FNB's property market newsletter.

Although in these relatively gloomy times it is sometimes difficult to see “light at the end of the tunnel”, it is always important to remember that property runs in cycles and at some point the cycle turns.

About three-and-a-half years after the broad downturn started, I remain of the belief that we are in “the end times” with regard to the weakening trend, and that improvement is now near.

This belief is based largely on the Firstrand view that interest rates have probably reached their peak. Although CPIX inflation still runs well-above the target limit of 6%, it is more the significant weakening in some key domestic demand indicators, most notably in the area of household spending growth, which leads to our belief that the SARB may well believe that it has
done enough to cool home grown inflationary pressures.

However, some other key property fundamentals (ones which I regard as crucial to a residential market recovery) are starting to show signs of improvement.

The first one is the rental market, with letting agents interviewed in FNB’s Rental Property Barometer survey overwhelmingly pointing to strengthening in their markets and growing shortages of available letting stock. This strengthening is important in order to improve the attractiveness of residential property as an investment.

The second one is the indication of significant slowing in new residential building completions, driven lower for the most part by weak demand last year, but to be helped lower by Eskom’s capacity shortages too. This is not great from a developer point of view, but for property returns to improve it is important thatwe have a slowdown in growth of stock, and 2008 looks set to be a dismal year from a development point of view. The combination of the expected trend change in interest rate from hiking to flat, an improving rental market and a slowing development market bodes well for property returns.

I expect to see primary residential demand responding more positively towards mid-year, translating into a return to positive growth in the value of new mortgage advances, while house price inflation will probably only respond with a little more of a time lag towards the end of the year. The development cycle is only expected to pick up late in the year in terms of work in progress, which in turn would only translate into improved building completions numbers only in 2009.

The risks? Any further interest rate hikes could delay the expected recovery, while current emigration talk is a cause for concern.

The process of buying and selling your home

For those who are in the property market one way or another!

Your House As Seen By:

Yourself...

Your Buyer...


Your Bank...


Your Assesor...

South African Revenue Services...

Rising Debt slows new vehicle sales - WAKE UP SA

You know what really gets on my TITS and pardon the French people but it does, are these articles you read in the papers these days. NEGATIVE NEGATIVE NEGATIVE CRAP! Whatever happened to the South African newspapers leading by example...

If I must read one more newspapers article about how South Africans are in so much debt and car sales are dropping and house prices are increasing and interest rates are rising with no positive aspect to any of this I'm going loose it!

Quote from the Pretoria News yesterday: "New vehicle sales fell 12% year on year last month as rising personal debt and higher interest rates cut consumer spending(NO SHIT)... Analysts said the data could help persuade the central bank to leave rates flat when it's policy committee meets next month (WE WANT HIGHER RATES, WE GET BETTER INTEREST ON OUR MONEY SITTING IN THOSE ACCOUNTS)

South Africa is no longer the lap of luxury it used to be, where everything was affordable even to those who had no cash. Personally well done TITO AND THE GOVERNMENT for trying to help curb debt and for bringing us this new credit act.

We're becoming like the Europeans and it's time we learnt to embrace it. So stop buying R500 000.00 cars, stop buying vehicles that cost R600 to fill up, stop buying houses that aren't affordable. Get with the times go with the FLOW, cut down on the luxury's and you'll see, life will become enjoyable again.

As for the newspapers, give us something positive. Tell us how to deal with the troubles in S.A. We know they're there!!!

Help me spread this word people, lets start turning the negatives in positives!

WizardMan out... *although not finished with his romping streak*

MY INVESTMENT PORTFOLIO - 2008 and ahead

So - NOW ARE YOU READY TO PLAY THE INVESTMENT GAME

Whats Hot

Whats Hot

Whats Hot

Whats Hot

WHATS HOT

Properties in Possession - PIP - It sounds callous, but you can pick up great deals now...

Overseas investments - Buy a fractional share on an island- sounds crazy but for R 200K get a month in Mautitius!!!!!!!

Be a Bull or a Bear!!! Stocks has to be part of your portfolio

Buy to Rent - Only do this if your bond ends up less than your rental income plus the levy -else you're being a schmuck

Be a giver (2% of the world) not a taker (98% of the world) - figure this out for yourself.

Deal with folks who are part of the top500 companies - they must be doing something right.

Keep the credit card that gives you the best rewards and the least costs.

Use AMEX - not everyone takes them, they have great rewards, costs are good and you pay for what you use. Great deal.

Become a discount junkie! You don't ask. Guess what - you don't get. MMMMMMMMM!!

Think like a Yiddishe businessman - Learn from the masters.

Buy sports goods out of season.

Pay your debts early.

Better still, get rid of your debts, one by one, boy this WILL GIVE YOU FREEDOM.

Use Standard banks First time buyers special - save serious bucks!!!!

Have a piggy bank!! Pay your cell phone with it.

Spend every spare moment with your loved ones - THE BEST INVESTMENT EVERY

Be Romantic you fool!!!

Ooba - MortgageSA rebrands!!

Ooba Ooba Ooba - No, it's not a South American chant it's the new re branding of the old MortgageSA group...

Has it finally hit South Africa, does the short catchy Google type name branding that's hit America by storm finally caught onto the South African market?

Well, we'll see, but I say, FLY AWAY MORTGAGE SA, welcome OOBA!

What I do like about the new site (apart from the fact that the image has gone from corporate stale and old to Kulula type funkiness) is the wide array of offerings that they have:

Oobasearch: Gives you the power to find the perfect home on South Africa's premium property website.

Oobabond: Gives you the financial power to secure your dream home.

Oobainsure: Gives you the power to protect your precious possessions across a full insurance offering.

Oobacard: Gives you the power to turn your house into your dream home.

What's even better about the whole deal :) WIZARDMIDRAND is officially an Ooba partner.

For more information check out the Ooba Official Website

Oooba AWAY!

Looking for that ultimate home loan rate, apply now!

Mortgage Southern African Convention - 12 & 13 March 2008

To my readers, I apologise for this article and the atrocious content for I, MOVED HOUSE THIS WEEKEND. Now let me tell you something, anyone who says it's fun, try it again, maybe you were one of the lucky few!

My head is thumping, my legs are aching and my eyes are burning from the dust that's still settling in the house! My bed is currently on the floor in my lounge and I have no furniture.

moving on ...

So, what's this Southern African mortgage convention that everyones taking about. Well, it's going to be a blast. It's the first of it's kind and the guest speaker lineup is incredible. It's must for property specialists and bond originators in South Africa... It's is a 2 day conference in Johannesburg aimed at the following:

Objective 1: To give delegates the opportunity to debate issues which can possibly influence the mortgage industry in South Africa
Objective 2: To assist in educating delegates on global trends in the mortgage and broadly the property industry
Objective 3: To highlight and seek solutions or challenges facing mortgage finance
Objective 4: To explore issues that are restricting mortgage companies to work effectively and profitable in delivering better services to customers
Objective 5: Provide market insight for ensuring sustainability in the mortgage industry

Guest speakers and presentations include:

John Loos - Property Specialist, First National Bank
Piet De Jongh - Managing Director, Loanlink
Nomonde Mapetla - CEO, Estate Agencies Affairs Board
Sean O'Sullivan - Head of Sales, First National Bank
Alex Bosch - Excutive Director, Timeshare institute of Southern Africa
Thys Geyser - Chairman, South African Association of Fractional Intermediaries
Shelley Mackay -Davidson - Senior Associate, Edward Nathan Sonnenberg
Pieter Niehaus - Associate, Deneys Reitz
Roland Lange - Aspire Financial Services
Henry Greyling - SEO, Seef International Gold and Leisure
Pat Lamont - Divisional Manager, Nedbank Sales
Jack Trevena - Managing Director, Bondexcel
Christpoher Santhose - Director, Key Mortgage Bonds
Rich Moss - MAnaging Director, Comcorp
Lauren Hall - Managing Director, Seven Habits Property Showcase
Charles Kalmesh - Manager, ABSA Affordable Housing
Brian Mahlangu - Managing Editor, Soweto Homes and Property
George Findlay - Legal Advisor, Korbitec
Christopher Malan - Senior Manager, Financial Intelligence Centre


DATE:
12 & 13 March 2008
VENUE:
Indaba Hotel, Fourways, Johannesburg.
Registration fee per delegate: R 4,766.00 + VAT = R 5,433.24

For those of you who are interested in this event please visit TCI SA - http://www.tci-sa.co.za/