Property & Real Estate South Africa weekly newsletter - 3 Sep 2013

King to pawn...

In an expensive "game of chess", Dave King has finally sorted out his tax issues with SARS and will end up paying over R700m to SARS. As he puts it: "When this tax dispute arose many years ago, I took a conscious decision not to cooperate with the authorities. That was a mistake."

Still on the money front, Satawu says SAA can afford the 12% increase the union is demanding, but if you want to get away from it all... the strikes, the demands, the claims and counter-claims, then Mango has come to your rescue with a scheduled service between Johannesburg and Zanzibar.

Talk about a captive audience... but a nice gesture, so one hopes the inmates took the lessons to heart when Ligwalagwala FM set out to motivate the inmates of Middelburg Prison with a live radio show aimed at discouraging criminal elements and activities amongst youths.

Finally, while no show-off himself, and with no hint of a swagger (but still quite the charmer), our tame motoring editor Henrie Geyser reckons the Renault Clio is a swaggering charmer.

Rod Baker, Content Director

Comment online in our ed's column archive. Go mobile with apps and m.bizcommunity.com. Engage with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+. Subscribe to YouTube and via RSS. Send all your industry-specific news and event invitations to propertynews@bizcommunity.com, exclusive opinion pieces to contributors-property@bizcommunity.com and international news to internationalnews@bizcommunity.com. Read "How to contribute to Biz, from op-ed pieces to news".

Hyprop results 'strong' despite challenging environment

[Nick Hedley] Retail-focused property company Hyprop Investments on Thursday (29 August) reported a 7.6% rise in distributions for the six months to June to 213c per unit‚ with a first time‚ albeit small‚ contribution from its African investment. Read more >>

Technology keeps realtor one step ahead

The cutthroat market has forced Eastern Cape realtors to become innovative in their approach to business, according to Jaco Rademeyer, owner of Jaco Rademeyer Estates. Rademeyer said he was constantly racking his brain in an attempt to be one step ahead with marketing his business. Read more >>

Now is the time to save

Few were surprised that the Reserve Bank decided to leave the repo rate unchanged at 5% - as it has since last year - due to less than stellar local economic growth. John Loos, household and property sector strategist at FNB, points out that the bank has actually lowered its 2013 GDP growth forecast from 2.4% to 2.0 with growth only expected to accelerate again in 2015. Read more >>

SAPOA agrees on land reform, not economic inefficiency

The South African Property Owners Association (SAPOA), whose members comprise 90% of the commercial property sector in South Africa, agrees that land reform in South Africa needs to be addressed, but it should not come at the cost of food security or by breaking up economically efficient enterprises. Read more >>

NCA often harsh on potential lower-sector home buyers

Although there is widespread agreement in the South African residential property sector that the promulgation of the National Credit Act was necessary and has contributed significantly to stabilising the property market by preventing reckless lending, it also has to be accepted that, at the lower end of the market, it has resulted in wide-scale disappointment and frustration. Read more >>

King to pawn...

Weekly top stories

Growthpoint distribution up 7.2% to 149c [Nick Hedley]

Social listening is the starting point of a social media strategy [Gordon Geldenhuys]

Five questions that land clients [Donna Rachelson]

Booze is hazardous to SA's people [Schalk Mouton]

Amplats to retrench 3‚300 [Max Gebhardt]

Stability improving among Impala workforce [Charlotte Mathews]

Grain lower on rand‚ Chicago [Helmo Preuss]

Women's bricklaying cooperative gets R100,000 injection [Silas Nduvheni]

Plaudits for Coca-Cola's container programme [Khulekani Magubane]

Networking activities crucial to SME development and growth [Gugu Mjadu]

Creating a new generation of women [Cristina Teixeira]

DTI fixes up standard form MOIs [Yaniv Kleitman]

Aspen, Nestlé deal needs further study - tribunal [Amanda Visser]

BCCI at loggerheads: a lose-lose situation for Cricket South Africa [Antoinette Muller]

'Solid organic growth' for OneLogix [Helmo Preuss]

Lifetime award for top scientist [Lucille Davie]

Numsa refuses vehicle makers' wage offer [Karl Gernetzky]