WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2008-02-13 Time: 00:00:00 Posted By: Jan
[Sure, we have inflation which will see that prices don’t really fall, but I’d only buy a home to live in, and not as an investment. Jan]
The property market may not be at the exact bottom of the cycle at the moment but, at least according to two experts, its pretty close.
Property strategist, John Loos, told the Moneyweb Power Hour last night, “I think towards the middle of the year, given our humble opinion that interest rates will now move sideways for most of the year, I expect to see a gradual uptick in demand for residential property towards the middle of the year. That's how I see the cycle. So I don't think we're far from the bottom, but still a little bit of pain and suffering to go.”
This sentiment was echoed by Absa property economist Jacques du Toit, who told the Moneyweb Power Hour, “It's turning into a buyer's market – maybe not completely, but it is much more of a buyer's market compared to a year or two ago, when price growth was still 20%, around about there.”
Asked what advice he would give to first time buyers, Loos said: “I don't think one should probably wait much longer. If one's holding out for price deflation I think you're probably going to be disappointed.”
But, he added, “I think really now is a time when you keep your ear to the ground and you hunt around and you look for a rather over-extended seller who might be desperate to sell, and who does drop his price. But for the market as a whole it's what I call a relative window of opportunity because you can find the odd desperate seller, but I don't think it's a situation where we're going to see price deflation on a significant scale.”
As to the effect of the National Credit Act, the FNB Barometer indicates that while is it is currently having a significant effect, as estate agents get more and more used to it, the effects will start tapering off toward the end of 2008.
But, Loos says, it is the lower income groups that are being affected by the Act now.
“There's an affordability calculation coming into play now. It's not just the standard sort of repayment to income any more. They look at everything. And what's been happening in recent years is that low-income groups – I think it's still the case – are being hit. They have effectively a higher consumer-price inflation rate than do the higher income groups.”
Du Toit adds that one of the major effects of the NCA is it has changed the level of what people can afford.
“We also feel that a lot of the focus in the market has shifted away from your larger, more expensive properties to the middle segment, and even to the more affordable segment. And, taking into account that affordability will remain important, people will most probably have to look at smaller, more affordable high-density properties in future.”
Asked about the impact of the electricity, both Loos and du Toit, maintain it will have a negative effect on new developments but that it is too early to tell what the full impact will be. – Geoff Candy
Source: http://www.tycoon.co.za/2008/02/12/is-it-time-to-get-into-the-property-market/