REI Residential
Body Corporate Responsibilities
Loans For 18k Earners
Demand For Residential Property Picking Up
If maintenance to a section is in continued disrepair should the body corporate intervene?
SA Home Loans, South Africa’s largest nonbank specialist home loan provider, has entered the affordable housing market, a development that spells welcome news for house hunters earning less than R18 000 per month. SA Home Loans Chief Executive Kevin Penwarden says now, lower income earners have access to the same innovative, consumer friendly approach to mortgage lending that’s helped more than 150 000 individuals and families purchase their own homes. He says affordable housing is a major segment of the South African housing market, with properties valued bet ween R250 000 and R500 000 making up more than a quarter of all registered residential properties.
In recent weeks, the question has begun to arise as to why it would be that the household sector’s consumer spending growth has become increasingly constrained, while simultaneously it would appear that residential property demand has been noticeably picking up. This would appear surprising to some, as it is the same household sector with the same frail f inancial situation that spends both on consumer goods and services as well as on housing. And a “partial reprioritisation” in household spending may just mean that a gradually rising need for new residential properties further constrains already pressured consumer spending growth.
The classic situation in which this question is asked is when an owner fails to repair a leak in their section and the leak damages a section below. This can result from leaks in balconies, kitchens or bathrooms. Section 44(1)(c) places the obligation to maintain and repair sections squarely on the shoulders of the owners. The body corporate is only responsible for the maintenance and repair of the common property. If there is no common property between the section that is leaking and the section that is suffering consequential damage, the issue is between the owners and the body corporate has no need to get involved.
Valuable Input
Mike Greeff, CEO of Greeff Properties
Jennifer Paddock, Attorney, Paddocks
“Cape Town property figures continue to defy the more depressed or flat national graphs, With 2014 being the official year of the Mother City’s reign as Design Capital of the World, we’re very optimistic about foreign interest.”
“Get involved in the management of your sectional title property. The more you understand about the finances and decision making, the better equipped you are to protect your pocket and your property.”
www.reimag.co.za
Samuel Seeff, Chairman, Seeff “Smart buyers are taking advantage of the favourable buying conditions with sales volumes in the primary residential sector continuing to strengthen.”
Graham Paddock, Paddocks “The most significant aspect of the Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act, 2011, expected to come into force in 2013, is the requirement for a separate reserve fund.”
Kim Faclier, MD GoIndustry DoveBid S.A “Just as online has become part and parcel of the way we do business every day, so too will online auctions become the way we auction property in the future. Online property auctions are the eBay of the future, no doubt about that.”
May 2013 SA Real Estate Investor
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