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Budget could assist first time home owners
"We welcome the announcement that government will explore an incentivised savings scheme for first time home buyers and look forward to further details," says Dr Andrew Golding, CE of the Pam Golding Property group, commenting on the national budget speech.
"On our wish-list for this year's budget was for mortgage payments to be tax deductible for home owners, as is the case in some overseas countries and perhaps this could be considered for first time buyers.
"From a property perspective, given the fact that aspiring home owners are faced with numerous costs when acquiring a home, including ever-increasing rates and electricity costs, while we welcome the increase in the transfer duty threshold from R500 000 to R600 000, naturally we had hoped it would be a more significant increase. The cost of purchasing a home is a major investment and considerable cost for most people and a significant reduction in the transfer duty would contribute towards making home ownership more affordable and within the reach of consumers - particularly first time buyers."
Commenting on the residential property market in general, Dr Golding says South Africa's property market continues to experience signs of recovery as a result of the sustained reduction in interest rates, gradual improvement in bank lending criteria and generally more positive economic outlook, both locally and internationally.
"To a large extent our residential property market still takes its cue from local economic sentiment but is significantly influenced by the prognosis in international markets, specifically growth in China and stability in the US, UK and central Europe.
"Over the past 12 months improved buyer activity, evidenced by increased attendance at both show houses and on-line enquiries, is an encouraging sign that the bottom of the economic cycle has been reached and that a platform for recovery is in place. It is particularly pleasing to note more interest being shown at the top end of the market which for the past 18-24 months has been unusually quiet.
"An increasingly evident trend reveals that today's astute investors are looking to the property sector not only to diversify their investment portfolios and achieve sound capital growth in the medium to long term, but also in order to realise the maximum income potential from such investments," he concludes.
