3 steps to buying your first house
“Happiness is… buying your first home” (Anon) Few things in life can compare to the joy of finally crossing the threshold of your first home. If you are like most of us, you have been dreaming of this day for years and years – it has finally arrived! The financial bonus of course is that […]
Property sellers: Why, how and when to choose your own conveyancer
When you sell your house (or indeed any other property) you are almost certainly dealing with a transaction of major financial importance to you. You will therefore want to do everything you can to ensure a smooth and professional transfer process, with the purchase price being paid out to you as soon as possible. First […]
Selling your home: How to be lucky this Holiday Season
If you plan to take advantage of the Holiday Season to sell your house, your first prize will of course be finding the best buyer, at the best price, as quickly as possible. As always, there’s a degree of luck involved, but you can to a great extent “make your own luck”. So we’ll discuss […]
Is the rental market succumbing to the punches?
As the property market continues to piece itself back together amid the ongoing pandemic, the rental market continues to feel the impact of the times more than any other sector in the real estate industry. While property sales have slowly picked up, and first-time homeowners are enjoying the advantages of a buyer’s market, empty rental properties continue to fill the market. With one […]
Before you buy or sell property this festive season
If you are thinking of buying or selling property during the Festive Season (which is again this year showing signs of living up to its reputation as a particularly busy time for the property market) don’t neglect the legal aspects. There are many pitfalls awaiting the unwary and rushing into anything without taking proper advice […]
Property Subsidence: New Law, Strict Liability and Ubuntu
It’s every homeowner’s nightmare – your property starts subsiding and as the tell-tale cracks in the living room widen alarmingly, it begins to dawn on you that your whole house is at risk of collapse. The cause must, you decide, be your neighbour’s excavations for a new house/garage/swimming pool. You approach said neighbour for a […]
Property: Green shoots, agent’s commission and Fidelity Fund Certificates
Dollar billionaire Andrew Carnegie said it a century ago, and it still rings true – wise property investment can be hard to beat when it comes to accumulating wealth. The exciting opportunity for buyers at the moment is of course the more attainable sale prices and the lower interest rates resulting from the pandemic and […]
Lockdown! Nuisance neighbours and how to handle them
It looks as if we will still be under “restricted movement” orders for a while – even when we finally get down to Alert Level 2 and who knows when that will be. Tensions between neighbours are no doubt at an all-time high, and whether you are working from home or just trying to stay […]
Running a business in a residential area – Check your zoning first!
You decide to open a home business, or perhaps you are about to buy a house in order to run a business from it. You apply for rezoning but the council is taking forever to decide (although it has happily started charging you rates and taxes on the business tariff), your immediate neighbours are supportive, […]
Airbnb owners and buyers – Should you be worried about the new regulations?
“While travel on our platform accounts for less than 1 in 8 visitors to South Africa, those guests boosted the economy by R8.7 billion and helped create 22,000 jobs last year alone” and “Regulation is a useful and necessary tool of good policy, but policy comes first. Sadly, the current wording of the draft Bill […]