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Johannesburg - Foreign purchases of South African property have recently levelled off, and currently constitute only 2% of all transactions in South Africa.
This is considerably below the 5% seen until recently, indicating that government over-reacted when advancing foreign ownership of property as a reason for the failure of land reform.
This percentage came to light in the latest property barometer from First National Bank (FNB) that was announced last week.
However, Andrew Golding, CEO of the Pam Golding Group - the estate agent that probably handles most transactions of this nature in South Africa - says there is no cause for concern because foreign buying in the country began to taper off with the advent of the financial crisis.
One should remember that a foreigner who buys a property in South Africa usually regards it as a second or even third property.
This type of deal is generally paid for out of discretionary spending and in the current economic conditions foreign buyers have less money to spend than before.
Golding notes that there is also a direct relationship between foreigners' purchases of property and the strength of the rand, because a strong rand inevitably makes South African property more expensive.
He says the current debate on land reform, and the possibility that the department of rural development and land reform's green paper in this regard might include contentious provisions on land ownership by foreigners, did not play a role.
The situation could change if the details of the green paper are published and it does indeed contain contentious clauses regarding foreign land ownership.
Golding says his experience at present is that potential buyers' attitudes to South Africa are very positive.
The experience of property agents who participated in the survey for FNB's property barometer was that the FIFA Soccer World Cup had occupied so much attention that visitors did not get around to issues like buying a house.
FNB property economist John Loos says the overwhelming success of the World Cup should, however, be beneficial for property in the long run.
- Sake24
This is considerably below the 5% seen until recently, indicating that government over-reacted when advancing foreign ownership of property as a reason for the failure of land reform.
This percentage came to light in the latest property barometer from First National Bank (FNB) that was announced last week.
However, Andrew Golding, CEO of the Pam Golding Group - the estate agent that probably handles most transactions of this nature in South Africa - says there is no cause for concern because foreign buying in the country began to taper off with the advent of the financial crisis.
One should remember that a foreigner who buys a property in South Africa usually regards it as a second or even third property.
This type of deal is generally paid for out of discretionary spending and in the current economic conditions foreign buyers have less money to spend than before.
Golding notes that there is also a direct relationship between foreigners' purchases of property and the strength of the rand, because a strong rand inevitably makes South African property more expensive.
He says the current debate on land reform, and the possibility that the department of rural development and land reform's green paper in this regard might include contentious provisions on land ownership by foreigners, did not play a role.
The situation could change if the details of the green paper are published and it does indeed contain contentious clauses regarding foreign land ownership.
Golding says his experience at present is that potential buyers' attitudes to South Africa are very positive.
The experience of property agents who participated in the survey for FNB's property barometer was that the FIFA Soccer World Cup had occupied so much attention that visitors did not get around to issues like buying a house.
FNB property economist John Loos says the overwhelming success of the World Cup should, however, be beneficial for property in the long run.
- Sake24
