With over 30 years of experience in the banking and home loan industry, my hope it is share what I have learnt over the years with my blogging community, inspire conversation around the subject and in the process discover unique insights into this ever changing environment.
Earlier in the year I stuck my neck out and said that Joburg would show an 8% notional increase in house prices and implied it would be hot property news. Not so, I’m afraid. Sorry. Then, I stuck my neck out [with the IMF as I’ve said in a previous email], and said we’d grow at 1.7%. […]
In our previous blog, I began writing on the plane to Mauritius with the 2018 Winners. Over the next 5 days, I spoke to them about what it takes to be a winner, some recent in their success and for others, simply a trail of achievement over years. We continue with the theme… “She taught […]
I am on a plane to Mauritius. How privileged am I to be included in a group of Homeloan Junction and Ooba Winners who have shot the lights out in 2017! I did nothing, they did everything to be here. We have first-timers, people who have never flown internationally before. We have golden oldies, those who have […]
The extract from FNB’s Property Barometer for July 2018 below leaves me posing the subject’s question. We started out so positively with Ramaphoria taking hold of us, our stock markets, Rating Agencies and the property market. The other day, I read an article in which this term was called Ramaphobia by mistake; it could have been […]
Okay, just before you think I have the answer to my question, here are two extracts from two leading banks as of June 2018: Bank#1: “Therefore, the signs are increasingly pointing to an even slower average house price growth year in 2018, than in 2017, and possibly the 4th consecutive year of house price growth […]
I called a friend of mine in Sydney for his birthday and found myself in the inevitable conversation about property. “What’s happening to property in Sydney?” was the question. I almost heard, “Eish!” but seeing he speaks Australian now, it was more along the lines of, “Shew! Bad…Mate” We spoke about Cape Town being a […]
This blog is a muse. According to the dictionary, a muse is to “be absorbed in thought” or to “say to oneself in a thoughtful manner”. So that’s what this is, just some thoughts about two apparently unrelated matters. Read on, if you wish… Nelson Mandela was born one hundred years ago on 18 July. I […]
Just an opening comment about Ramaphoria. How cute we are as a nation to adopt words like Rainbow Nation, Zumanomics, and, our latest euphemism, Ramaphoria. When we give it a name, we somehow settle back into our armchairs and watch Chicago Fire. Without a name, we stress. Ramaphoria was never going to last. So, we […]
Maybe it’s the side of the bed I woke up on this morning. Maybe it’s the way I feel or my bio-rhythms. Maybe it’s where I am in life, not just a place, but an attitude or approach to it. Or, maybe it’s just the truth as simply as I see it. My Son tells […]
I remember when I first came into mortgage finance. I could not believe the seasonal nature of Bonds. Shakespeare and John Steinbeck took the theme to professional extremes. But for now, to read at the fire with a glass of red wine, is Shakespeare from Richard III: Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer […]