Are you a winner or loser in the current market?
Interest rates have been making headlines again. Even though home loan payments have increased by 35% in the last two years, there is not likely to be any relief soon for either residential homeowners or investors. If you bought a property where the income could not service the mortgage bond and levies, the situation would now be nothing less than dire, as the servicing of the debt-shortfall gap widens. Not only should this time provid
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The best time to start a property portfolio is as soon as possible

The best time to start a property portfolio is when you first start earning an income. The success stories of many young investors provide proof that it can be done, and the numbers show that the sooner you start, the more spectacular the results.

Win better deals by selling property online in a cooling market

With the real estate market continuing to slow down, there are currently many properties for sale, and prospective buyers are spoilt for choice. This means more competition for sellers, who could find it difficult to get their properties noticed by prospective home buyers.

There is a growing trend among home buyers to use the Internet to search for properties to purchase. The Internet offers an effective marketing pla

Wall Street Blues
Wall Street, custodian of US citizens’ wealth, has understandably had some explaining to do. The US’s national reputation and the wealth and retirement prospects of people have been harmed. The explanation (or convenient excuse) from ‘the brightest guys in the room’? The housing market lost value, and Wall Street and other major financial institutions got caught holding bad residential loans.

Wall

Knowing the laws, rules and roles of trustees and agents has its benefits

Rundown of sectional titleSubject to local authority town planning regulations, building restrictions and common law, owners of freehold title properties are free to manage their properties as they please. A sectional title owner however, is governed by a number of additional restraints that set out strict procedures as to how the property must be managed and who is responsible for such management.

As a
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How to invest in any market up or down

Find opportunities in any market
If you are considering investing in property, the time to start doing so is now. You may immediately respond that interest rates are high, property values are stagnant, and that the market in general is less than a rosy picture. But smart investors can find opportunities in any market.

’If you are investing in property, the time is always now,’ says Coert Coetzee of Treoc.com. ’If you follow

Eliminate the fear factor – establish a trust to protect your assets

The old cliché about death and taxes is true, but with some smart planning, even death taxes can to a large degree be legally avoided.

Income-generating fractional ownership

In the May/June edition of Real Estate Investor Magazine we took a look at fractional ownership, one of the property market sectors still showing steady growth in the area of vacation-ownership. We discovered that fractional ownership offers investors a host of benefits, including

• affordable ownership of exclusive properties, which still enjoys higher capital appreciation than other residential properties;
• better value for money, since
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Flat-out investment performance
If you are looking for an investment property, there are several reasons why flats and loft apartments (commonly known as lofts) make sense. With the cost of land rising, as available land for development becomes increasingly scarce, maximising land space is becoming a public sector priority in order to ensure affordability.

The space issue
All over the world, as well as in South Africa, properties are becoming smaller. A visit to the UK, Europe,
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Create wealth and learn from the greatest achievers in history

Dr John Demartini was the keynote speaker at the 7 Habits ‘Property on Thursdays’ event, held at selected Ster Kinekor cinemas around South Africa on 24 April 2008. He spoke about the science of creating vast wealth.

Demartini is a world-renowned teacher, philosopher, speaker, and author of 40 self-mastery books, among them the bestsellers How to Make One Hell of a Profit and Still Get to Heaven, The Brea...
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Legal methods to save on tax for investors who are mostly business owners

Can you really operate your business as a trust? What about the high tax rate? Will you be causing the Receiver of Revenue to focus on your financial affairs? These are the usual questions business owners will ask when one advises them to run their business as a trust.

People set up trusts to protect their personal assets against the risk of their business failing, for the continuity of a business, and
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SA’s population will not be able to provide for themselves

We saw it again recently when the American credit crisis caused people to lose billions of dollars on the world’s stock markets. I read that the pension fund industry, in particular, lost a lot of money. However, the world’s wealthiest investor, Warren Buffett, did not lose a single dollar.

Low market cap rates with a high return can mean the deal of the decade

Golden Rule 1: Risk is equal to yield

As with any endeavour in life; the higher the risk, the higher the reward. To express this using our newfound understanding of cap (capitalisation) rates, we would say the lower the risk, the lower the cap rate. In other words, for an investment with low risk, the market would capitalise the rental income at a low cap rate (that is, a high factor); the market would ap

Creating, building and leaving a legacy

Justin Clarke is an easy-going Durbanite. He spent most of his youth in KwaZulu-Natal and was educated at Michaelhouse school in the Natal Midlands. After matriculating in 1979, he continued his studies at Durban University, where he began a Bachelor of Social Science degree. However, he dropped out of university after one year, having already started on a path where a number of international multimillionaires successfully started their career paths &

Quality of life and unexploited investment potential

East London, or Buffalo City as it is now known, is showing increasing investor confidence and presents some excellent opportunities for astute investors, in both the residential and commercial arenas. The city offers an ideal lifestyle with its long sandy beaches, moderate climate, good schools, absence of traffic congestion and a fast-growing economy. Billions of rands are being pumped into East London by the private sector, with new

Three reasons for investing in volatile offshore markets

There are a variety of reasons for investors deciding to invest in offshore property. These include an already adequate investment portfolio of South African pro