28 May 2011

Saturday Open Thread - IRT Effect?

It's the Saturday open thread. This week: 'Will the IRT (Integrated Rapid Transport) System currently being rolled out affect the property markets it services?'

21 May 2011

Saturday Open Thread

It's the Saturday Open Thread! This weeks topic: Gentrification: Where is it happening? Good or bad?

17 May 2011

High Rise And High Levies: R60 000/year Evaporated

Here's a nice looking 210m2 loft in Cape Town on the market for R2.2m. Now on a R/m2 basis that isn't too bad (+- R10 000/m2), although it only has 1 bedroom in that 210m2 space...

What is bad though is the massive R5 100/month combined rates and levies (Rates: R2500, Levies: R2600). That's over R60 000/year that you will never see again.

Over 3% in capital appreciation is required every year just to make back the money spent on rates and levies.

15 May 2011

The Orangerie: If You Enjoy Losing R18 000/month

Reader DM sent us a link to a 2 bed apartment for sale at The Orangerie (how we missed you!). Here's the text of the ad:
The best of the best
What better place to live! tenanted until 31st December 2010 @ R8,000 p/m.


And the asking price? Only R2 850 000. Which means a 100% bond would require a monthly bond payment of R25 642/month.

So you can rent for R8 000/month or pay R25 642/month to own. To put that in perspective to get your bond payment down to the same level as the rent you would need to a down payment of around R2 million.

Anyway if you're buying for investment this is a terrible option (unless you enjoy losing R18 000/month), you don't need me to tell you that but here's the yield/cashflow graph anyway:















Down PaymentMonthly PaymentCash FlowAnnual IncomeROICap. Appr. Required
R0R25642.19R-17642.19R-211706.287.43%
R285000R23077.97R-15077.97R-180935.65-63.49%6.35%
R570000R20513.75R-12513.75R-150165.02-26.34%5.27%
R855000R17949.53R-9949.53R-119394.39-13.96%4.19%
R1140000R15385.31R-7385.31R-88623.77-7.77%3.11%
R1425000R12821.09R-4821.09R-57853.14-4.06%2.03%
R1710000R10256.88R-2256.88R-27082.51-1.58%0.95%
R1995000R7692.66R307.34R3688.120.18%-0.13%
R2280000R5128.44R2871.56R34458.741.51%-1.21%
R2565000R2564.22R5435.78R65229.372.54%-2.29%
R2850000R-0.00R8000.00R96000.003.37%-3.37%

03 May 2011

High Rise And High Levies

Here's a 104m2 2 bed apartment in the CBD on the market for a hair under R2m. Now you can probably negotiate the price down but what you can't negotiate down is the rates of R893/month and levies of R3285/month.

That's an eye watering R4 178/month! Over R50 000/year! More than 2.5% of the current asking value of the property evaporated every year.

Lord help you if they ever need to put in a special levy for urgent repairs.