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To Buy or not to Buy? How to make the choice right for you…

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I have been trawling the property information keeping myself up to speed with developments. There is a gloom in the economy, but fortunately the property sales and mortgage business is not in the doldrums. Affordable housing has looked good for years and developments continue in many areas of the country. It has probably been the manner in which the SARB has guardedly raised rates that has keep the property market on an even keel. Let’s hope it stays that way; boom and bust is disruptive and we cannot afford disruption in a national asset being Residential Housing.

The question often comes up, especially from First-time Homebuyers, is this the right time to buy? In other words, To Buy or not to Buy? – that is the question.

The answer is always the same for me: Do you think the cost of building is going to go down? If the answer is Yes, then wait. If the answer is No, then buy. Let’s explore this issue in a bit more depth.

Inflation, on a global scale, has been kept in check very nicely. Some of the major countries, Japan noteably, have reduced interest rates to historic levels on the back of close-to-zero inflation. Costs of production have been driven down by the Asian countries and currencies have been relatively stable for many years. In the past year or two that has no longer been the case and currency fluctuations and even devaluations, have become the norm. As we’ve mentioned before, thank goodness for the low oil price.  So the inflation story sounds quite benign until it comes to building costs. News24, on 20 February 2015 reported, Building costs have continued to increase by more than the average consumer price inflation rate over the past 15 years, according to Jacques du Toit, property analyst of Absa Home Loans. The latest Absa residential building review compiled by Du Toit shows the average building cost of new housing constructed came to R5 828/m² in 2014, which was 12% higher than the cost of R5 205/m² in 2013. The building costs are affected by a number of factors such as building material costs, labour costs, transport costs, equipment costs, land prices, rezoning costs, developer and contractor holding costs and profit margins.

That insight answers the first question and clearly, building costs are not reducing and frankly, seldom have. I guess the question then is, what should I be buying?

Think about the following:

Affordability
Don’t buy what you cannot afford. The bank will help you with this and strictly test your income and expenditure in terms of well-known affordability guidelines laid down by the National Credit Regulator. Do an affordability calculation to see what you can afford to buy.

Improve or Buy
Buying and selling homes is an expensive affair. As a rule of thumb, knock off 20% – 30% of the price of your new home for costs. Transfer and estate agent commission could already be about 12% and then bond settlement and registration costs and furnishings add to the tally. Improving instead of buying could prove much cheaper and convenient.

What to buy
If you’re going to buy, buy wisely. For normal family living, close to shops and schools, proximity to work, sport and social events makes eminent sense. Remember, what you like or don’t like as a normal consumer probably counts for many others’ opinions as well. It may be cheaper next to the highway but probably all the buyers agree that you can’t hear yourself talk in the garden. Then, if you can afford it, take some advice from my late Uncle – there are two strips of land that are scarce, along the coastline and along the top of a mountain range. Houses in these two places carry and hold a premium in the long run. I am also a proponent of secure estates and, in particular, golf estates. Secure estates for the obvious reason of enhanced security but golf estates, in addition, give you lifestyle for the family. And remember, few additional golf estates are being developed – they are just too expensive and water is becoming a serious problem – thus adding to the scarcity value.

Future plans 
Don’t put yourself through the trauma of moving twice! If you have your eye on emigration, a job in another town or a particular suburb or estate, don’t buy now. Wait until you can settle and then sell and settle in the new environment. By the way, building can be a real pain and you would be a rare person to not have a “builders story” after completing your house. The same can be said for renovation but it is normally on a smaller scale.

Investment or not 
Robert Kyosaki [of Rich Dad Poor Dad fame] is quite right when he says that an asset that does not produce income and requires maintenance and services, is actually a liability. In fact he goes so far as to say, buy and rent a factory and let the factory buy the house from nett rent. But most of us don’t live there and we get great pleasure from owning a property and knowing it is the domain of our family. For this reason, the comments about What to Buy become really important. You would at least look to capital appreciation to offset the costs when you sell the property so choose the Location well. This section particularly applies to “that little house at the sea”. Truth is that we could do well, in most cases, to rent or use a guest house for our holidays, rather than battle financially to pay off a second home.

If you think you can afford it, buy now. Be wise and look around. Consider all your options and do your best to think ahead a few years. But, I would posit, do not delay too long if you can afford to buy now.

And always remember Homeloan Junction is there for you. Dealing with us is free. Yes, you read right – free. And we’ll back that mortgage service up with sound advice and expert knowledge.

 Yours in Property.

Five good reasons to go with a real estate agent

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While a real estate agent can’t cut through the red tape with regards to securing a homeloan, they can most certainly facilitate the home buying process so that it is as smooth and painless as possible. They have the skills, the resources and the experience to help make the process so much easier. This is particularly important for first time home buyers and for those purchasers who are dependent on the sale of their current house in order to afford a move up the property ladder.

1. Choices, Choices, Choices

As an expert in the real estate market, a real estate agent can assist you, the buyer, in finding a property that best suits your ideal location, size and needs at the most favourable terms. A good real estate agent will go to the effort of establishing the price range you can comfortably afford and not take you to view properties you can’t afford.

A real estate agent will usually work in a specific residential area and will therefore be familiar with logistics such as the positioning of a prospective home in relation to schools, shopping facilities, access routes and other amenities like medical facilities, bus routes and so on. And as an objective party, the agent can easily spot the strengths and weaknesses of a property. They will be able to highlight aspects of a prospective home that may still satisfy your expectations and needs even if said property does not quite meet all your given requirements.

2. The Duty’s in the Details

When you use a real estate agent to help you buy a property, the agent is legally and ethically duty bound to serve your best interests. This extends to not misrepresenting a prospective property. Your real estate agent is obliged to make you aware of any and all information in relation to the property including disclosing any defects the property may have. This said, should you have any doubts, it might be worth calling in an expert structural advisor as certifying your prospective home’s construction falls out of the purview of your agent. Full disclosure also covers any potential zoning issues your agent is aware of such as plans to build a three-storey apartment block on a neighbouring property as this could dramatically, and negatively, impact on the future value of your new home.

3. Help with your Homeloan Application

When you have made the ‘big’ decision, a good real estate agent can advise you on making a reasonable and market-related offer on your ‘dream’ home. If you’re in agreement, your agent will complete the obligatory ‘offer to purchase’ form on your behalf. Your estate agent can also assist with the homeloan application process; they all have long standing relationships with Bond Originators like Homeloan Junction.

4. Negotiating the Paperwork

The home buying process is complex and there is a great deal of paperwork involved. Once your offer to purchase has been accepted and your homeloan is secured, your real estate agent will guide you through the remaining purchasing hurdles and help you cross the finish line. Your Estate Agent will be with you until the sale is successfully closed and your new property is officially registered with the Title Deeds office.

5. Communication Counts

When you have a real estate agent helping you with the home buying process, you not only benefit from their expertise and knowledge; you get someone in your corner who will keep you informed through every step of the home buying process and be there for you in the event of problems with any aspect of the process. This goes a long way to alleviate the stress and risk involved in making such a critical financial commitment. Practising clear and open communication prevents misunderstandings and messy disputes down the line and is in the best interest of the agent whose reputation is at stake if he/she is marked as disreputable. After all, the agent doesn’t want what should be an exciting and positive experience for you to be tainted by buyer’s remorse.

Yours In Property

Vincent

How to pay off your home loan faster

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Does the thought of twenty or thirty years of home loan repayments put you off buying a home? Even your dream home can start to look less dreamy when you’re faced with what looks like a life sentence of hefty monthly repayments. But what if there was a way to reduce this period … and reduce the total amount?

Buying a home is one the biggest financial investments most of us will make, yet how many of us are aware that small additional payments on your home loan can have a major impact on the final amount you will end up paying for your home? The biggest burden facing homeowners with a bond is the interest they will pay over a 20 or 30 year period.

Say you take a R1 million home loan over 20 years, no deposit and at the current prime lending rate of 9.5%;  you will end up paying R2 237 115 for your home. That’s enough to give anyone grey hair! But, before you lose heart, there are a number of steps you can take to pay your bond off faster … and significantly reduce that final figure!

Take a look at these 5 clever ways to bring down your home loan repayments:

Pay your salary into your Bond

I know it might sound strange, but as long as you have an access account enabled on your bond you can actually pay your salary into your home loan every month and then simply transfer out money needed for debit orders and day to day spending when you need it.

Here are the advantages of doing this:

– Benefit from lower interest rates applicable to the outstanding amount on your home loan
– Inadvertently use your home loan account as a savings account and pay off your home loan faster

Make Additional Payments

Fast track the repayment of your home loan by putting any surplus cash, like your bonus cheque or SARS refund, you have into your bond. Yes, this does require discipline and a measure of sacrifice but the long-term gain on your home loan is well worth it. Take for example, an additional R1200 paid towards your R1 million home loan every month, over and above the monthly instalment (R9 321 in this case) owed, and you’re looking at saving R374 344 in interest … and cutting your repayment period down to 14.75 years.

 Put Down a Deposit

If you are still in the planning phase of purchasing a home, consider putting down a deposit rather than taking a 100% bond. The bigger the deposit you’re able to put down, the smaller your home loan and the less interest you will pay. On a R1 million home, a deposit of R120 000 will reduce the interest you owe on the outstanding capital to R1 088 661. That is a straight up saving of R268 454 before you’ve even considered taking any of the additional actions discussed above. Calculate how much a deposit can save you, by viewing our Bond Repayment Calculator.

Ignore Rate Fluctuations

While you have no choice but to make increased monthly instalments should the prime lending rate increase, heaven forbid, it is a wise choice to keep your instalments steady in the event the rate decreases as this gives you an automatic gain on your bond. You’re already committed to paying a certain instalment so sticking to this amount should the rate drop gives you an added advantage in paying off your home loan that much faster.

Explore Your Home Loan Options

It doesn’t hurt to explore your options in order to secure an even better rate on your bond. Talk to a bond originator like Homeloan Junction. If you have a good repayment track record and credit history, who knows, they may just be able to negotiate a reduced interest rate. Even a 0.5% reduction can represent a significant saving; that is R77 773 saved on a R1 million bond over 20 years with no deposit down. Should you decide to switch home loan providers, be sure that the cancellation and penalty fees you’ll inevitably be charged will not outweigh your prospective savings.

As you can see, a little commitment and discipline can go a long way to alleviating the burden of your bond. And at the end of the day, paying off your bond faster and reducing the amount of interest you owe on your home loan translates to money in your pocket. This can be used towards your retirement, your children’s university fees, a world cruise or perhaps an investment property.

Yours in Property

Vincent

3 Steps to master staying Motivated in our Economy

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In this blog I was going to write about the economy. But I have decided to talk about a few aspects of motivation.

One thing about the economy and the circus in parliament, is that we always need to be motivated. We who awake to a new month every month, must somehow understand what’s going on and then lift ourselves above the negative and move on. I like John Loos, FNB’s Property Economist. I have known him for many years as a good writer, extremely well researched and with a sense of humour. He wrote this month in the FNB Property Barometer:

“Some minor increase in economic growth in 2015 is not expected to provide any meaningful boost for residential demand growth in a slowly rising interest rate environment. While nominal house price growth may be slightly stronger in 2016, compared to 2015, this would be due to higher CPI and wage inflation next year and not necessarily due to market strengthening.

Rather, one should look at our real house price growth forecast, where house prices are adjusted for CPI inflation, to see our forecasts of weakening residential demand growth through 2015 and 2016 being reflected. Here, we expect a turn from positive average real house price growth for 2015 to negative real price growth in 2016.

Let’s make no mistake, the indicators still point to mediocrity at best.”

In turn, Barclay’s forecast of interest rates is that they will rise in September but as early as July 2015, from 9.25% to 10.50% by the end of next year.

What all of this is saying to you and I is that 2015 lacks lustre but is pretty good under the circumstances. 2016 will appear slightly better as GDP rises but inflation and rising interest rates will probably push things a little lower – hence the words: “mediocrity at best”.

But the great thing is that we have a task to wake up to. Some would say you don’t choose Property, Property chooses you. If that seems true in your life, then here’s some thoughts to take with you.

3 Steps to Master staying Motivated in our Economy:

  1. Look Up. Psychologists and Neuroscientists will all tell you that Looking Down is sure to take you down. The only time you look down is to gain perspective. Lift yourself out of the current pressure, step back from negativity, take a helicopter view and assess what is preventing you from success and motivation and then Look Up. The period you look down and around you is to understand what’s going on, what the causes are or may be, what you are allowing to control your life and how you may begin to arrest control again. Looking down is for perspective – is Eskom really that bad? Is South Africa really going to the dogs? – and then armed with the new truth, you begin the actions and the self-talk that take you back to positivity and motivation. That implies you Look Up. So what happens when you do? Well, faith begins to flow in your veins. If you are spiritual, you will know exactly what I mean. If you are less so, you will begin to “confirm” what is good and can still be counted a blessing in your life and in your country. You see, it is the action of taking the reality and then deciding the path through it, that is motivating. It is Action that casts our Fear, it is Desire that replaces Fear. You cannot deny how you feel but you can decide to not allow your feelings, often expressed as Fear or Negativity, to control your actions. Feelings are not inane, they have life and energy – one lecturer in my Executive Coaching diploma said “feelings are as good data as sales graphs.” The only question is how do you order your “feelings”, how do you take grip of them and allow their energy and “tingle on your skin” to drive you to success. Look Up is not so much a mighty action to Permanent Motivation but rather a day-by-day attitude to make the best and be the best you can be. Like a good golfer or tennis player, you look at those around you only to gain insight, to learn, to propel yourself and your game to new heights.
  2. Make Choices. There is a wonderful saying: “You make the choice and then the Choice Makes You.” How true! How many times do we look back and wish our choice had been different? But on the other hand, how many times do we look back and see the power and the sense of direction in our choices? Encourage yourself with those events that have been as a result of your choice and have turned out well. The lovely thing about Choice is that the one you make today is the one that sets the new direction. I struggle to say that your future is solely in your hands and you can create your future – I leave much room for the will of God. But it is undeniable that when a good choice has been made, it has changed the course of my life for good. Choices of who to marry, which company to work in or leave, what to study, what business to pursue, have all affected our lives and made them what they are. If the choices we have made in the past are so powerful to have brought us to this point, then why are the choices we decide on today not just as powerful? And things we must remember: Big choices are often disguised as small – what you eat is who you are, exercise is beneficial and taking some “me time” strengthens you – tiny things that when consistently applied, can change the way you think and who you become over time. Secondly, making a choice is Taking a Risk. I like to talk about the law of Unintended Consequences. Just like Murphy’s Law [if something can go wrong, it will], unintended consequences will occur – after all, you are just human and you cannot see everything that can happen. Making a choice often involves risk-taking. The challenge is not to stop making choices, the challenge is to manage the risk. Do that as part of your decisioning, do that as you transition from one state to another, and then be prepared to do that as your choice unfolds through action and execution. Risk is not risk because it does not exist for the fearless entrepreneur [yes that’s you every month, my successful homeloan consultant and estate agent!], risk is not avoidable, it is only to be managed.
  3. Choose Your Company. It is the people we mix with and spend time with that define who we become, what we believe, what we consider as important and how we progress. That cynic, the person who with sarcasm makes some people laugh, the demotivators who complain all day and live here anyway, the guy who is unfocused and complains about the state of the market – all of them have more of an impact on us than we choose to believe. I listened to JP Landman last week as he spoke about removing the “noise” so as to see what is really happening. On Kyknet, he had previously described himself as a “Rational Optimist” – he sees the reality and then sees the hope for a brighter future. Needless to say, it was refreshing for me. Sometimes seeing politicians turn the gravitas of parliament into the colourfulness of a circus, sometimes sitting in load-shedding is not “romantic”, sometimes, well, I’m not as optimistic as I should be.. but then I am in the company of a man who provides tangible proof that “things are not that bad” and my spirits lift. When you’re feeling the stress of the market, when cash flow looks bleak, when relationships falter, when flu strikes, when illness besets you – look at the company you’re keeping. Do those people motivate and encourage you? Do they make you laugh until your belly wobbles? Do they inform you, guide you, express an honest opinion, avoid advice and let you think things through yourself? Find these people, mix with them and see the difference. And, by the way, BE ONE FOR OTHERS.

Motivation is not a feeling, motivation is an action. Homeloan Junction says to all of those that share a common view, Look Up, Make Choices and Choose Your Company – it may just be the antidote that changes the course of your life.

Yours in Property.

Banks vs bond originators – Which offers a better deal on your home loan? ( Part 2)

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The Press has recently had another look at Originators vs Banks and the articles have become well-publicised. A link to the MONEYWEB Today article is  below for your convenience.

In my first blog of this 2-part series, I covered the history of the banks and their homeloan businesses culminating in the business model of homeloan consultants who called on estate agents and paid small commissions for their business. In 1999, the landscape changed again.

MortgageSA and PA Homeloans, [now, ooba and BetterLife] began to slog it out in the market and were later joined by the ex-NBS team in the form of Bond Choice. The three originators, made hay while the sun shone and decimated the bank homeloan sales forces. In this context, just a brief note on the so-called “love-hate relationship” between the banks and originators. Bear in mind, I express my personal views and, in doing so, fully accept that I may have people who disagree with me.

In 1999, if the banks wanted to retain their own dedicated sales forces into the market, then what they did was difficult to understand. Any amount the banks paid to the new originators that enabled the originators to pay the estate agents more than the banks’ 0-0.3% was destined to disintermediate the banks from their estate agent relationships. No profit-orientated business person would walk away from a higher homeloan introductory commission – the end of the bank homeloan consultant was in sight from the beginning. To keep it simple, let’s say the originator commission was 2%, then the originator could pay 1% [anything more than 0.3% was good enough] to the estate agent and keep 1% for their consultant, overheads and profit. Throw the dramatic property market upturn of 1999 to 2007 into the mix and the stage was set for massive change. If there is love-hate, the banks can be forgiven for giving away their direct right of access to the residential property market. No wonder they might feel aggrieved. By the way, the banks’ commercial property divisions did not follow their residential counterparts’ leads and to this day, have a small broker component with the majority of business coming directly.

On the other hand, what the originators did to the banks was unacceptable. One thing an originator cannot argue, morally or contractually, is that they do not take the risk of the homeloan. Controlled by onerous Banking legislation which incorporates capital and informational requirements, the banks proceed to approve the homeloan application and then administer it and its risk for the lifespan of the loan. Every event of the customer –  death, joblessness, errant credit behavior, over-indebtedness, interest rate increases – is felt by the bank and worked through for 20 to 30 years.

Let’s never forget that banks are fiduciary institutions and, as channels of the nation’s savings, bear responsibility to depositors to give them their money back with interest, and on time. I always say, a bank’s name is spelt, T-R-U-S-T. Break that and you break everything. In the light of this view, the behaviour of the originators was sometimes arrogant and demeaning to banks. All of us had a role to play in the response eventually taken by the banks to bring the industry into line. Just the practice of “shopping” to every bank willy-nilly was unacceptable. The average conversion rate of 18% was in poor taste and mathematically boiled down to 4 banks divided by four submissions of the same deal less NTU’s; plus-minus 25% – 7% = 18%. What a waste of admin capacity, time and money.

With these strong views as both a banker and an originator, I read the article below and make some pertinent comments in closing.

Banks deserve the utmost respect of the originators. They carry the risk for the lifetime of the homeloan in the face of increasing compliance legislation. Nothing or no one in origination should be allowed to treat this responsibility lightly.

In turn, banks benefit from a variable, once-off commission, or introductory fee if you prefer,  at a rate they have calculated over years and agreed contractually. Some points bear emphasis:

  • As a variable rate, the banks bear no overhead in the ongoing acquisition costs of the originator. They have effectively curtailed the fixed cost, fully absorbed nature of their homeloans’ acquisition. That’s good business.
  • The use of Comcorp and the originators’ own platforms radically reduce homeloan processing costs.
  • I contend that the current commissions paid to originators are not only variable but also less than the fixed cost, let alone the fully absorbed fixed cost, of acquisition for a bank. In this regard, it is no accident that insurance companies have long embraced the broker model and latterly only, the digital platforms, even in the face of their broker strategies.
  • Sensibly, a bank would outsource to a responsible origination force but for the relatively few customers who insist on dealing with bank-branded homeloan consultants in specific higher net worth channels.
  • The banks will never outsource their credit evaluation models. The seduction of lower costs is far outweighed by the risk of manipulation. On this front, banks’ fraud protection units are critical to combating this scourge in financial services. Regretfully, this stance will always mean a higher cost of delivery but no bank can be blamed for holding credit quality as sacrosanct to itself.
  • Origination exists because the banks want a secure, reasonably priced, variably-costed channel. In doing what they did with the average origination commission, the banks effectively stabilised the industry and made it sustainable.

 In turn, the originators have a compelling proposition. It is simply this:

  • The originators provide Choice in a financial services industry awash with options. Choice of product, institutions and interest rates. I am often asked if I “get the best rate” and my answer is No, I get the best credit terms. What I mean by that is, does a customer want Prime-0.5% with a 10% deposit, or Prime+0.5% without? That is Choice in action; the customer’s call. I have the chance as an originator to present such options repeatedly and from different banks.
  • The originators provide Convenience. At the offices of their agents, in the homes of their customers, over the phone with attorneys, linking with bank assessors – origination consultants do an incredible job Conveniently. Their costs are their responsibility and they are paid on success only – like estate agents, true entrepreneurs who start every month from scratch.
  • Originators are Experts. Because they only do homeloans, origination consultants, many of whom came from the banks in the first place, are steeped in homeloans. This expertise, coupled with close networks with principals, developers, conveyancers, assessors, bank representatives and insurance specialists, is brought to bear in the submission of the homeloan application. Such dedicated focus is rare in retail banking today. It’s quite correct, as one of the experts in the article below mentioned, that origination consultants have an excellent idea where to place a particular customer’s homeloan for best results.
  • As regards interest rates, I sense that customers are viewed by the banks for pricing in sophisticated pricing models and that little deviation occurs from it for the sake of an originator’s customer. On the other hand, I’m not convinced that customers get better rates by going direct – the full absorption cost of a bank would probably make sure of that. As a result, an originator’s ability to consistently get better rates for their customers will remain confidential to the banks with much annecdote around it. One thing is for sure though, a hungry, commission-driven originator consultant will fight tooth-and-nail for her customer.
  • Finally, the customer gets all this for Free. That’s the biggest factor in favour of the value proposition of origination. You don’t pay at a bank either if you go direct but the cost of time parking, in queues, the car guard and the paper trail all add up.

Now let me sum up. The history of homeloan acquisition is interesting and its evolution has netted for South Africa one of the most effective homeloan businesses in the world. The banks spawned origination when they bought the origination proposition. The originators have taken hard knocks to reach the point at which their industry is attractive  to the banks as viable and sustainable with acceptable credit and fraud risk in the process. It would seem, like many new industries, the origination industry has matured into a worthwhile business proposition and partnership with the banks.

Love-hate? I guess not. Partnership is more how I like to think it; built on mutual respect, a desire for long-term sustainability and cost effectiveness.

Here is the link to the article on Moneyweb – Banks vs bond originators – Which offers a better deal on your home loan?

Want to know more about the services Bond Originators offer, Get in Touch

 

Banks vs bond originators – Which offers a better deal on your home loan? ( Part 1)

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The Press has recently had another look at Originators vs Banks and the articles have become well-publicised. The MONEYWEB Today article is copied below for your convenience.

Looking at it and the articles received courtesy of ooba Marketing, I am excited again to write about the phenomenon called Origination. I will spill over into two articles.

I have an uncle who quotes: “Life without history is no life at all,” so let’s go back a little…

In 1999, origination began with an offer by Standard Bank to MortgageSA to pay a commission for completed bond applications. This event spurred the Property Association to become involved in the industry. In those days it was called Bond Broking but the word, Origination, was eventually adopted from the American term.

The Americans had a different means of origination which has never taken hold here and probably never will. In their case, Fanny Mae and Fanny Mac, their great executors of The American Dream, were established as the conduits of the Nation’s savings into home ownership.

We have much to thank the Americans for when it came to South Africans being brought up to believe that home ownership was an important step in “growing up”. “You need to buy a house”, your mother would tell you. In order to garner home loan applications that could be discounted into the companies, both Mae and Mac set up Originators and Servicers [two terms still used in the Securitization industry today].

The originators did what we do – called on the estate agents, completed the application and submitted it to the Servicer sometimes via the credit score of the company, or the Servicer did the credit approval. The Servicers captured the application and administered it for statements, arrears, upgrades and all payment calculations.  The point is that Mae and Mac both had similar models and outsourced their homeloan acquisition and servicing to Originators and Servicers. In this model lay the seeds of the disgusting practice of black-box finance that eventually lead to the Sub-prime crisis that brought much of the World’s economy to its knees in 2008-2010.

What the originators and servicers did was reason that it was silly to administer home loans one at a time when you could package them as a portfolio of risk and then just sell them in billions of Dollars at a time to banks, and Mae and Mac. The premise was simple, “you can’t lose on property” so who cares about affordability, you just repossess the house and get your money back.

Problem is that when lots of houses come back at the same time, property prices collapse. Then the financiers, wooed [greed was alive and well] by market share and interest earnings, took away deposits and over-lent on properties. 30 year fixed rates at less than 3% were marketed so you were crazy not to borrow against your house. What mayhem followed! Our banks over-reacted though as the tsunami of negative sub-prime sentiment swept across the finance world and, in many ways, changed the landscape of mortgage finance completely. By the way, “sub-prime” does not mean “less than Prime interest rate”, but rather it is the term given to assets in a portfolio which are “less than their best” ie “below being “prime” assets in value”.

So why do I say “has never taken hold here and probably never will”? Our banks are multi-product institutions which are fully integrated from an administrative point of view. They do not need Servicers as their Operations departments are effective and efficient in multi-product administration and, legally, it would be very difficult and unacceptable, for our banks to sub-contract affordability which has now become law through the National Credit Act.

I remember once talking on World Report, a global BBC phone-in programmer, and being slated by an American guy who described SA as a nanny state because we have affordability guidelines and laws that govern how credit can be lent. Shame for him, as two things saved us in Sub-prime, one was that we have always been strict on affordability and the second, that we never conducted black-box securitisation in SA and were somewhat restricted from investing in such homeloan portfolios by our foreign exchange regulations. Thank Goodness!

Back to local history. In the 1960’s bank capital was scarce and the South African Reserve Bank held tight reigns on the banks and building societies. At that time, estate agents brought their completed bond applications to the Building Societies’ branch managers and then vied for the available capital of the day. I can even recall my Dad selling a house in Amanzimtoti and giving his buyer a “collateral” bond. This meant that the seller forfeited some of his sale price, 5 or 10%, to help the building society with capital to finance the bond for the buyer. This process revolutionised with the demise of the Building Societies Act and the modern Banks Act in 1973.

Banks could then more freely access capital and began to do their own homeloans – ABSA and Nedcor were born out of this huge change in legislation. It took Dr Theo Wasserman, CEO Trust Bank, to change the bond acquisition landscape for keeps. He decided to deploy smart looking “home loan consultants” to call on estate agents and canvas business. Their claim to fame was simple: “We come to you and take all the paperwork away.” No self-respecting estate agent would say no to that  and so the other banks followed suit and home loan sales forces were born. It truly was a brilliant move by Trust Bank which was, as you know, eventually absorbed into ABSA. The consultant salesforce model prospered right up to 2000 and were eventually paying between 0-0.3% for bonds for their respective banks.

Now that I have completed dated myself, let me conclude this first blog post saying that the love-hate relationship purported between the banks and the originators has been fantastic for the home loan industry in South Africa. More on that next week……….

Here is the link to the article on Moneyweb – Banks vs bond originators – Which offers a better deal on your home loan?

Want to know more about the services Bond Originators offer, Get in Touch

Nepal earthquake, a stark reminder of how crucial Home Owners Cover is

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I have had a Son and his two friends in Nepal for the last 2 weeks. He was two days out of Katmandu when the earthquake struck and two days shy of Everest Base Camp when the avalanche fell. Needless to say, it has been a long two weeks for my wife and I. The good news is that he and his friends are safe in Kat at the moment waiting for their flight out tomorrow.

But all this earthquake talk started my thinking about our insurance cover. Fortunately we don’t have many earthquakes of any size at all and just now and again have tremors to remind us of Mother Nature. We have however, had recent fires in Cape Town that destroyed some beautiful properties.

Fires were in fact the start of what we now know as Comprehensive Insurance, in the 19th Century. Today it includes our household contents and cars mainly. In particular though, is Home Owners Cover [HOC] which is at the heart of what we probably call natural disasters.

The good news is that if you have HOC, you are covered for what are called Fire and Allied Perils which includes damage caused by Fire, Wind, Water, Storm and, thankfully, Earthquake including its cousins, Mudslides and Avalanches. [On a side note, one wonders how many of those poor people in Nepal have HOC]. You can check your policy, but this cover is a general rule for all policies in South Africa as it emanates from the fires that were prevalent in wood-built cities of old.

Some policies may have conditions that you need to understand. For instance, a house in a known flood plain may be refused HOC cover for Water or the owners may have to pay an excess to their premium for such cover. Some policies may insist that the construction of a building is such that it is engineered to withstand a 5-plus earthquake. It’s not a bad idea to understand your policy wording to be very sure of what is included or specifically excluded.

The crux of this conversation has two angles:

–   Firstly,  get insured for HOC as you should be for contents and cars. Do not delay, the loss you could take in a fire is unbelievable and they do happen. When your bank has a bond over your house, this is a general rule. You probably are insured per course with the bank but may have your own insurance. In the latter case, the bank insists that you let them know that you are still insured once a year or they will reinstate your policy at your cost and include the payment in the bond payment. Bottomline, they have a right to insist, as the bond holder, that you are and remain insured.

–   Secondly, make sure your insurance is for the right amount. This amount is the replacement value of your home. Find out from estate agents what your home is worth in the market and ask them if that estimate is close to replacement value. Things change over time and replacement from older areas can be far more expensive than you imagine. Please don’t delay.

Some final thoughts. Often you’ll read that only 30% of cars in South Africa are insured; that’s staggering and not good news for anybody. In turn, house under-valuation is an ongoing problem for insurers. You should also be clear in a sectional title development that your Body Corporate is representing values correctly. Ask your chairperson of the BC to show you the latest policy and values for your unit. As regards Subsidence and Landslip cover this can be a nightmare. Simply, if your retaining wall falls over who pays – once again, be certain that there walls are valued and covered in your HOC. The same goes for sinkholes – make sure you understand your cover.

Our experience in Nepal has alerted us deeply to the things in life that are precious and worthwhile. Homeloan Junction cares about your home and your family way beyond getting your bond approved. That’s why we write these blogs with useful and hopefully, compelling information. Check out your policy and its cover; you may be very grateful you did.

Get in touch with us if you have any questions  on this, or anything relating to home ownership.

Yours in Property.

The Transfer [Conveyancing] process

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There are essentially two contract processes that enable you to buy a property, whether residential  [our main focus in this article] or commercial.. These are the Bond Registration process and the Transfer [Conveyancing] process.

We covered the Registration process in our last article. Remember what is happening here in the Transfer [Conveyancing] process is that a qualified Transfer Attorney is assuring that the property is transferred from the Seller to the Buyer without any doubt as to ownership in the future.

Thanks to attorneys Yammin Hammond Inc. for their easy-to-understand Transfer [Conveyancing] process:

Transferring ownership of a property from the Seller to the Buyer (i.e. conveyancing) is a complicated and often misunderstood process. It involves a number of parties, many of whom have conflicting interests. All of them, however, have to coordinate their efforts to ensure that the documents arrive at the Deeds Office on the same day.

There are other parties, such as the Estate Agent, Mortgage Lender and Bond Originator, who have a financial interest in the transaction and often want it to be completed in the shortest possible time.

Understanding the sequence of events will help you monitor the process accurately and also give you an idea of the time remaining at each stage.

Below are some of the steps typically required to transfer a residential property. It has been written in simple language and illustrates the relationships between the various parties.Much of the jargon and key concepts are explained in the notes on the right hand side.

Step Description Notes
1. You sign an offer to purchase a house from the Seller using an Estate Agent

 

 The Sale Agreement (or Deed of Sale) is a binding contract between the Buyer and the Seller that forms the basis of the transaction.
2. You apply to the Bank for a loan or a Bond Originator applies on your behalf A bond application normally forms part of the “suspensive conditions”, i.e. events that need to happen before the sale is finalised. Another common suspensive condition is the sale of an existing property.
3. The Estate Agent sends the Sale Agreement to the Transferring Attorney The Sale Agreement (or Deed of Sale) is a binding contract between the Buyer and the Seller that forms the basis of the transaction.
4. The Transferring Attorney contacts the Seller’s bank and requests the original Title Deed and the cancellation figures If the Seller has a bond over the property, his/her bank will hold the Title Deed in safekeeping. The bank will also provide cancellation figures (or discharge costs), i.e. how much is required to settle the Seller’s bond.
5. Your bank instructs their attorney, the Bond Attorney, to register a Mortgage Bond A Mortgage Bond is a special loan which uses fixed property (e.g. a house) as security and it is registered in the Deeds Office.
6. The Seller’s bank instructs their attorney, the Cancellation Attorney, to cancel the Seller’s bond The Cancellation Attorney sends the Title Deed and guarantee requirements (i.e. the cancellation costs) to the Bond Attorney and the Transferring Attorney.
7. The Transferring Attorney requests a Rates Clearance Certificate from the Local Authority A property cannot be transferred if there are outstanding rates and taxes. The Transferring Attorney will also do a Deeds Office search at this stage to check the details of the property.
8. The Transferring Attorney assembles and prepares the documents This can take up to 3 weeks.
9. You will be called by the Transferring Attorney to come in and sign the documents You will be required to sign a Power of Attorney to Transfer as well as a number of affidavits to verify your marital status, financial status and identity. Remember to take your identity document and FICA documents.
10. You pay the transfer costs and your share of the rates and taxes You will be presented with a pro-forma account, which is an estimate of the costs. You will get a final account after registration when the actual costs are known. The costs vary because the date of registration is unknown at this stage and some of the costs are determined by this date. Note: The Seller will also pay his/her share of the rates and taxes at this time.
11. The Transferring Attorney instructs the Lodging Attorney to lodge the documents in the Deeds Office The Lodging Attorney is located near the Deeds Office and acts on behalf of the Transferring Attorney (who may be far away from the Deeds Office – even in another town).
12. The Lodging Attorney contacts the Cancellation Attorney and Bond Attorney to ensure the documents are lodged together on the same day The documents have to be registered at the same time because the Seller’s bank has guarantees that ensure it will be paid when their bond is cancelled and they are not prepared to cancel the bond until the new bond is registered.
13. The Deeds Office Examiner carefully checks all the documents This stage is called “on prep”. It can take between 7 – 10 working days depending on how busy the Deeds Office is.
14. The Deeds Office Examiner contacts the Lodging Attorney, Bond Attorney and Cancellation Attorney to inform them the documents are ready This stage is called “up for prep” or “up for fees”. It means the documents are all in order and they will be registered the next day.
15. The documents are registered The Buyer becomes the owner of the property and the Seller is paid out the net proceeds. The Estate Agent is paid their commission.
16. The Transferring Attorney sends the Title Deed to your bank It can take up to 3 months for the Deeds Office to send the Title Deed to the Attorneys. If you don’t have a bond, the Title Deed will be sent to you.

For more information on your Homeloans options, contact HomeLoan Junction Today!

 

The South African housing market has been somewhat buoyant. The question is: Will it remain so

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Expectations are that the SARB will leave interest rates unchanged at the MPC meeting on 26th March. This expectation follows on the heel of Governor Yelland’s indication that the United States Federal Reserve will not be raising interest rates soon in that country as inflation is very low ( less than 1%), and meaningful job recovery is still sought in the US economy. This news will no doubt help retain our trend.

According to FNB, the final quarter of 2014 saw South Africa’s Household Sector continuing to lower its vulnerability to debt-service cost “shocks”.

While still highly indebted and highly at risk, in 4th quarter 2014 South Africa’s Household Sector continued to gradually lower its vulnerability to any unwanted interest rate hiking surprises or economic shocks, by further lowering its Debt-to-Disposable Income Ratio. According to the South African Reserve Bank, a further decline in the Household Debt-to-Disposable Income Ratio, from a previous quarter’s revised 78.1% to 77.6% in the 4th Quarter of 2014. This brings the cumulative decline in the ratio since the early-2008 peak to 11.2 percentage points, which is significant.

All of this means that the Household Sector is moderately better positioned to weather an interest rate hiking “storm” this time around compared with 2008/9, due to its overall level of indebtedness being considerably lower these days compared to that period.

Another angle to take in answering the question is to look at buyers who are acquiring Buy-to-Let investments. The 1st quarter 2015 FNB Estate Agent Survey pointed to no further increase in the significance of buy-to-let buying in the market compared with the previous quarter. By this FNB means that, as a percentage of total home buying, buy-to-let purchases are estimated by estate agents who responded to the survey to have remained unchanged on the previous quarter at 9%, the 3rd successive quarter of this estimated percentage.

FNB believes this percentage trend is a healthy one, reflecting that the property market is not running away with itself as it did prior to 2008’s sub-Prime crisis. The percentage remains mediocre in comparison to the estimated 25% back in the boom times of early-2004. Household Sector Real Disposable Income (simply, what we put in our pockets) growth remains constrained by sustained weak economic growth for the foreseeable future, while Government taxes, fuel levies and statutory costs, like electricity, continue to rise.

In addition, the rental market’s performance in recent years has remained lacklustre. At low interest rates, people would rather try to buy their own property. In the Western Cape though, the value for money by renting often exceeds what similar payments per month on a bond could buy. In other words, rental returns are low compared with Gauteng.

Nevertheless, a stable buy-to-let percentage of total home buying should imply a gradual rise in the volumes of buy-to-let purchases, because we have seen gradually rising overall transaction volumes in the residential market in recent years.

Looking at 1st time homebuyers, the 1st Quarter 2015 FNB Estate Agent Survey once again returned a strong estimate of 1st time buying levels expressed as a percentage of total home buying, although a little down off the peak percentage of a few quarters ago. FNB believes that the mild decline may just point to a slow decline in home affordability that has appeared recently. Obviously, this would deteriorate quicker if interest rates were to rise.

According to the sample of agents FNB surveyed, 1st time buyers were estimated to be 25% of total home buyers. This is slightly lower than the 28% high of the 2nd quarter of 2014, and the percentage has now been lower than last year’s high point for 3 consecutive quarters, causing the smoothed trend line to point slightly downward. As before, FNB believes that the mild decline may just point to a slow decline in home affordability.

FNB has two very interesting indicators. FNB’s Home Affordability measures include the Average House Price/Average Labour Remuneration Ratio, as well as the 100% Instalment on an Average Home Loan/Average Labour Remuneration Ratio. In simple terms, these two indicators measure how affordable it would be for the man-in-the-street to buy a house and make the payments on the bond. These indicators started to rise in 2014 after prior years of decline because of the net result of house price inflation exceeding wage growth, and of course the minor interest rate hikes last year.

It would appear, too, that an increasing portion of 1st time buyers are indeed concerned about house price increases and affordability challenges, according to FNB. “Buyer Panic” refers to a state of mind where aspirant 1st time residential market entrants begin to fear that if they don’t buy a home quickly, the price levels will rise to levels where property becomes unaffordable for them. This can cause “inappropriately high” levels of 1st time buyers over-extending themselves financially as they attempt to get a foot in the property market “before it is too late”. This, in turn, can cause market “price bubbles”. FNB considers the market still appears to be far from this point but buyer panic must always be a concern where it exists.

So back to the question, Will the South African home market remain somewhat buoyant? It would appear from the above that the market is better than recent years but not over-heated or unreasonable in any of the residential property sectors. So, we will probably retain current growth levels for the foreseeable future.

A closing comment. Interest rates may not be the key determinant of home buying. There is a large dose of “Confidence” that comes into play. Think of it this way, when you buy a house you want to know it’s for keeps and your work circumstances are stable and certain. Fear of job loss, and a sense of uncertainty about the future could keep you renting.

Your mortgage bond is your best friend

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Obviously, you don’t feel like that right now. That monthly payment for “as long as you’ll live” feels interminable. And you’re hearing lots of news about inflation and rising interest rates. Then there’s all those other expenses that chew the rest of your monthly income.

But let’s look at things a little different and see some light at the end of the tunnel.

  1. Your mortgage bond gives you your primary place of residence. It pays for “home”. Your home is growing in value, slowly but surely. So, at some point in time, when your salary has risen and your bond has decreased you will have Equity in your house. That is a turning point in your wealth creation. Just by the way, I once said that your home is most peoples’ biggest asset and I was corrected. Your pension, for most people, is their biggest asset so look after it.
  2. When you have the spare cash monthly, pay extra on your bond. If I told you just a 10% increase in payment would save you 5  years [54 months to be precise], in payments. On a R1m bond over 20 years that equals R341662 in saving. Obviously, that gets better over a 30 year period and with more than 10% incremental payment. Can’t do it now? Then set the financial goal to force a saving of whatever you can afford.
  3. Remember, whatever you save earns tax free returns. The reason is simply that you save interest instead of paying interest and the bank earns less while you have a saving over the period.
  4. Obviously, there comes a point when your bond may be paid off. That’s a huge saving in monthly cashflow. Aim for it, it holds a hidden gem.
  5. At some stage, your equity or your paid off bond releases cashflow for an investment property. That’s an exciting prospect.

We’ll talk more about property investment in this blog, but aim in your portfolio to have a rented property or two when you retire. The great thing about it is that it is paid by somebody else. Of course, there are nightmare stories about tenants but there are many more about great returns from a tangible asset. What is most interesting about a rented property is that the mortgage bond, serving as an access facility, becomes your overdraft if you want it to be. Interest is tax deductible and the facility can be used for all sorts of luxury and wealth generating activities. For instance but not recommended, you can go overseas and repay the bond. Better still, you can buy a business or invest in other assets or another property by simply using the paid off rental property. It also helps that if a business doesn’t succeed, you have not risked your home in the process.

Property may not always be the best return in your portfolio. Many will also say that a property fund is the easiest way to invest in property – this blog does not disagree. But, for the sheer investment enjoyment of property, a buy-to-let investment is good to own and use.