Property has been, and remains the best way for the average South African to accumulate wealth.
Buying a property is about a lot more than having a place to live or as a stepping stone to a bigger, more expensive home - those who own property are able to borrow against it, sell it at a profit or rent it out for extra income.
This is according to Mmusi Maimane, the DA’s candidate for Premier of Gauteng, who says his parents owned the title deed to their home in Dobsonville, enabling them to borrow against it, as well as investing in their home. He says without it, he would not have been able to take the opportunities that came his way later in life. He says he is thankful for that title deed, because it was the genesis of the success he has been able to achieve.
Bruce Swain, MD of Leapfrog Property Group, says as someone who has been both a buyer and a seller in the property market, as well as having been a real estate agent for years, he completely supports Maimane's claim. He says he has seen it time and again, entering the property market gives people a valuable asset to work with and is an invaluable means to increasing their wealth.
Making the most of property
Buying a property is about a lot more than having a place to live or as a stepping stone to a bigger, more expensive home - those who own property are able to borrow against it, sell it at a profit or rent it out for extra income. When managed wisely, these properties can aid in giving a child an education, as was the case with Maimane, or serve as a retired person's pension (providing monthly income in the form of rental payments).
It takes a title deed
Whether the home is a grand Clifton mansion or an RDP house in Soweto, the most important aspect is the ownership of a title deed - without it, none of the property's financial benefits can be accessed.
According to a report issued by Urban Land Mark (ULM) in 2011, it was estimated that between 1.1 million and 1.4 million subsidy beneficiaries did not have title deeds to their properties. The delay has been blamed on a number of factors ranging from revisions to the project payment process in the development of subsidy houses to the appropriateness of the deeds registration system - all of which the report discusses in some depth.
Swain says regardless of the issues being faced in terms of getting title deeds into the hands of property owners, the bottom line needs to be that this gets done and as quickly and efficiently as possible. He says we're living in a country with a severe economical imbalance between rich and poor and providing homeowners with their title deeds can do much to empower them.
Swain goes on to encourage the Department of Human Settlements to do everything in its power to assist the process. He says the sooner homeowners can legally borrow against, rent out or sell their properties, the sooner they can work to uplift themselves. It is imperative that this issue gets the attention it deserves, he says.
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