Property issue sparks heated debate

SHOULD FOREIGNERS be restricted from buying property in South Africa? That was the question posed in last week’s “Poll Booth” on FTNow, FTW’s daily news service on the internet. It’s turned out to be the hottest topic ever debated on the site. The final result was: Yes: 50%; No: 48%; Not sure: 2%. Here are some of the letters received: ‘State controls stunt development’ It’s ‘positive’ market forces that put prices up, conversely property in Zimbabwe is possibly down a little at present. Firstly, your correspondents should be reassured that Europeans wish to invest in SA. Secondly, South Africans should have learned something since 1948; that state controls stunt development of every kind, social, commercial and cultural. Thirdly, market forces are where it really is at! From a British, ex-Johannesburger (1974-80), working in England residing in France ‘Learn from Aussie mistake’ Take a lesson from Australia. They opened up their market and Hong Kong, Singaporean, Japanese and others snapped up Sydney property. Prices are now way out of reach for the average Sydney sider. A normal mortgage term is now 35 years (!!) and the policy had to be scrapped. If South Africans do not want to burden our children with “2 generation” mortgages, we would be well advised to learn from Australia’s mistake. Durbanite living in Hong Kong. ‘Take a lesson from tourism industry’ This is not a difficult issue to debate and we need not look into space for our future. All we have to do is look at our tourism industry. Not so long ago South Africans could holiday anywhere in the country at affordable prices. Today, luxury hotels, game parks and luxury lodges have benchmarked their rates against the US dollar. Where do you think South Africans holiday today? We certainly do not need foreign influence with the pricing of our land now, do we? Anonymous ‘Encourage investment’ Foreigners’ investments bring growth and stability to South Africa and for that reason they should be encouraged to buy property in SA. Definite no. ‘Hardly fair for non-citizens living here’ “Foreigners” buying property could preclude all the thousands of permanent residents who do not have SA citizenship, but have lived here for many years - hardly fair, is it? Anonymous ‘How to strengthen the rand is the real issue’ The wrong answers are given to this question. It is not if foreigners should buy local property or not, the question is rather what are we as a nation going to do to make the rand stronger. The world does not owe us anything. We need to get our attitude right and realise that the world is a global village. So the question is, what are we going to do to make the rand stronger? Charl Ueckermann ‘Our high interest rate must be considered’ We should take note of the prices of property in relation to the interest rate in South Africa. Most developed countries’ interest rates are well below the 10% mark whereas we experience interest rates is well above the 10% mark, therefore our property market at this stage should not be compared with those countries whose prices of properties are fairly high. All factors should be considered, not just the price of the property. We should regulate the price of property so that prices are realistic. Samuel Poonsamy ‘The real issue is our ability to export’ There are always two sides to the story. One that may decide about the well-being of the nation as a whole is our ability to export. Who is going to buy from a country whose productivity is not the best (Spoornet comes to mind), and whose products become more expensive by the day? Doesn’t it make the problem of the properties look rather unimportant? Dirk Schšttler, Novotrans. ‘Think global’ The world is turning global and so is the property market. You cannot stop developments and, who knows, maybe one day South Africans will be buying German properties. Things are no longer “black and white” and South Africans need to broaden their horizons to think globally. If they feel inferior then do something about it rather than trying to hide behind legislation which is artificial and not sustainable. Peter Ehrenreich ‘It won’t benefit all South Africans’ I believe that there should be restrictions, because of the value of our rand. It results in property values moving unnaturally upwards and out of reach of South Africans. I do not believe property purchase by foreigners benefits all South Africans but rather the handful finalising the deal. Furthermore I believe that when purchases above a certain value are made that thorough financial audits should be concluded as to how the wealth was obtained. Anonymous reader ‘Local sellers set the high price trend’ I do not believe that any of your readers would like to have restrictions placed on them should they wish, for whatever reason, to purchase property in another country. Most people are concerned at the high property prices coupled to sales to foreign buyers and the impact this has on the purchasing ability of locals. We should be looking at the local sellers - they are the ones setting the trend of high prices. It is fact of life that all of us will sell what we have to sell at the best price we can. Some people get rather greedy about that too but do not blame foreigners - blame, if you must, the greedy ones. It is also a fact of life in many other countries that property is paid off over two or more generations. We in South Africa have so far been spoilt in that we buy and sell homes with consummate ease and pay them off before we retire. Realist - Johannesburg