African Arch Pty Ltd

09/04/2020

03/09/2019

Do not limit yourself. Get in touch with us and we will help you register your own company and give you pro-support post-registration.

Price for full registration is reduced to R950 and will be back to normal price of R1 350 01 Jan 2020.

21/11/2016

As is the case in almost every industry, the internet and technology in general have substantially changed the game for the South African residential real estate industry, with many, if not most, of the innovations seen globally in this space embraced by estate agencies locally.

This is according to Dr Andrew Golding, chief executive of the Pam Golding Property group, who says according to the National Association of Realtors, in the United States, which has led the way technologically as far as the residential real estate industry is concerned, 90% of consumers now begin their real estate journeys on the web.

“And we are seeing similar trends here in South Africa,” says Dr Golding.
In addition, he says the California Association of Realtors reports that more than 8 out of 10 home buyers are accessing home information on their smart phones and computer tablets in a trend to mobile, which is also mirrored in South Africa, and probably set to increase even further as our access to more bandwidth improves.

“Speaking of bandwidth, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report, the availability of fast internet service is starting to become a major factor in Americans’ decision to buy a home."
A recent study released by researchers at the University of Colorado and Carnegie Mellon University found that fibre-optic connections, the fastest type of high-speed internet available, can add $5 437 to the price of a $175 000 home, about as much as a fireplace, or half the value of a bathroom.

Dr Golding says this is to some extent being mirrored here in South Africa, with the introduction of ‘fibre to home’ across entire suburbs, such as Parkhurst in
Johannesburg , and in the process, undoubtedly adding value to the suburb itself and the properties within it.

Such features are also being incorporated as ‘standard’ in many new upmarket developments, such as Steyn City and Park Central in Gauteng .
He says also in line with global trends for real estate agents here in South Africa, technology and in particular mobile apps, are innovations that are becoming increasingly popular tools to increase efficiency, competitiveness and most importantly, to give an added value service to clients.

“For estate agents, the use of tablets for presentations to clients is now commonplace, giving real time listing information and enabling quick and easy storage of notes, templates and presentation discussions,” says Dr Golding.
Some companies now have proprietary software that facilitates e-mail reports to sellers and follow-ups with buyers regardless of the device they might be using.

However, he says one interesting technological innovation that has not yet reached our shores from a real estate perspective is Google Glass.
“The high-tech internet-powered computer, which is worn like a pair of eyeglasses, debuted to the general public in the US recently, at a unit cost of $1 500. But well before its full-fledged consumer launch, it had already begun trickling into the real estate industry, particularly on the residential side.”

Dr Golding says whether or not this particular innovation takes hold in South Africa remains to be seen, but what seems certain is that the pace of technological advances is set to accelerate exponentially in the coming years and residential real estate, being the multi-trillion dollar industry it is, is likely to benefit.

“The big question, of course, is whether or not these technological innovations will lead to significant changes to the role and function of the individual estate agent. As is the case with many other industries, some argue that some degree of disintermediation by technology is inevitable,” says Dr Golding.

“Another view is that, unlike the disintermediation of the travel industry, for example, where direct booking online is commonplace, the real estate industry finds itself in a world where house prices are typically three to five times the annual household income of the buyers, a home purchase is significantly more complicated and risky than booking a vacation and residential property is as distinctly individual as the people who buy and sell it.”

To date, there is no technology that can overcome this fundamental fact and mitigate the risks associated with it, says Dr Golding.

By Property 24

19/10/2016

3D flooring can give your bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, lounge or even your office that uniqueness and stand out especial if you are a person of out of standards.

12/10/2016

Is building a property really cheaper than buying one? Make a choice.
(Please note, this is informal piece of an article that may give critical foresight to some readers)

When you plan to build, you go through a stressful process of finding a right site to build, you spend time and money only just looking and searching for a site. You travel to many different advertised sites using money and transport till you find that perfect site, in that perfect place you like.

After you've located that perfect site, you buy it and sites in good locations are expensive these days, sometimes you even have to pay security fee to secure that site if competition is tight. After that you spend your time and money looking for the right developers. Dealing with developers is another stress since sometimes you have to provide meals. Let's not forget that also a site has to be prepared for building, and you pay.

Developers will often only quote you for material they need to build up your dream house, they don't collect it in most cases, so you have to go shoping and organise for tranport. When you have done that, developers will need regular management, your management which will take from your time again.

When your house is fully built you pay your developers and now it's on you.. You now pay for those small installations such as your plumbing, electricity, fencing, waste pipes, water installation, geyser, and interior fittings. That's bulk expenses when combined.

You complete building your house for let's say R350 000 maybe plus R80 000 for a site so you are sitted with R430 000 value for your house. Five years down the line you have to relocate. Five years down the line inflation has took its course, suitable land to build is becoming less available. Based on these realities and considering time value, your sell your property for R750 000. Your house may be deserving more but defiantly its value have increased. In ten years period, this house may be valued above six digits.

Building is an investment that one chooses to be part of, in its entirely developments and buying is an investment that one chooses to acquire at some stage. Property is investment.

By African Arch Pty Ltd

05/10/2016

19/09/2016

Hatching properties.

At African Arch, we love real estate and please take your few minutes reading this informative article on how to crack a real estate deal. In this article we will thinly shine a spotlight on how to walk away happy from a property deal either as a seller or as a buyer. If our readers do remember, on our last article we discussed market value and real value which are two common property values. This article is all about negotiations and real estate deals with a presumption that our readers already understand what is property market value and real value. Please refer to our previous article should you need some clarity on these two values.

Buying a property is investing and selling a property is turning an investment and since every such transaction will involve both parties (buyer and seller) it is worth knowing how to squeeze every last juice out of that investment you making or turning. For it to happen, each party must understand and know his/her position to negotiate the deal.

The first step to go into real estate negotiation is to fairly understand the market value of the subject property and compare it with its real value. This is easiest technical approach to deal cracking. If market value is greater than real value, it is advised to a seller to take market value position and the buyer to take real value position. If real value is greater than market value, it is advisable for a seller to take real value position and buyer to take market value position.

A health negotiation should make up to three offers by the buyer before a deal is made. Narrow negotiation may displace one party’s potential gain while too much negotiation may jeopardise the whole negotiation. It is therefore important to know how far to go and when to actually pull back when negotiating a deal.

Making negotiations requires skills, patience and constructive pursuit. These skills and abilities require constant harnessing as they may not come naturally for some individuals. Having a professional in this area by your side may defiantly turn incremental for you. Investment and property is African Arch’s area of expertise.

By African Arch Pty Ltd.

01/09/2016

Look at property value, see it?

Guess what, each property is definite to see more than one value sometimes even more than two. A profound fact is that each property will always have two or more values, but for the sake of this article set to be brief, we will look at only two main values namely market value and real value. Either selling or buying, it is found important to know and understand these terms in real life to get the most out of the deal either as a seller or buyer, so we edge you to tune in in this five minute of reading and grasping.

Properties are bought and sold every day in the property market, one known platform in South Africa set to organize this market where property buyers get to meet property sellers is Property24. This is sort of a free market which determines property values through the mechanism of demand and supply spelling property market value in the process. Market value basically forsakes the quality of each property but focus mainly on the quality of the market.

A practical example of property market value in real life is the case of flourishing property values in Lalucia versus staggering property values in Ilovu for example. Despite the fact that Ilovu may have better properties compared to Lalucia, but still properties in Lalucia enjoy higher values because of prestige and elite perception the market has for Lalucia and this is what market value actually is, it is all intangible aspects that part play in determining property value.

Real property value is a valuation approach that considers all tangible aspect of each property without taking into account all market perceptions. Looking only at market value may be sometimes unfair especially for sellers. Take an example where one has upgraded his/her property, take for example security upgrades, interior and exterior upgrades. In this case appealing market value may be advisable for a seller. For a free hint, buyer or seller can appeal a market value if feel a need to in which case an independent real valuation would be undertaken on buyer’s or seller’s cost depending on the nature of the agreement.

Closing a deal on a market value when real value is actually higher may be beneficial for a buyer and not for the seller and the opposite is true when real value is lower than the market value. Our next article will discuss the best way to hatch properties either as a buyer, seller or investor.

By African Arch Pty Ltd

18/08/2016

This article is a proceeding article from the previous one which attempted to generally discuss the topic of finance as means of obtaining property. More than 75% of properties obtained through real state agency firms involve use of external finance. It is therefore of relevance to discuss finance, and this article will discuss one financial institution that pioneers property finance in terms of expertise and overall delivery.

On our last article we promised to follow up with a proceeding article that will discuss one financial institution that the company endorses as an institution of privilege made available to all South Africans keen with property ownership and property investment and that institution is SA Home Loans.

SA Home Loans provides a wide variety of financial products allowing enough flexibility and choice. Although SA Home Loans mainly offers long term bonds, but also they do have short term loans on their offers which is a very positive thing. Sometimes you already have property/properties of your own and therefore do not necessarily need a 30 year bond but simple some cash to maintain and turn around your property and SA Home Loan ability to cater for small and short term home finance is at clients’ convenience.

We have used the word “privilege” to describe SA Home Loans under the topic of home finance because not only does this institution provide home finance like every other normal financial institutions, but SA Home Loans is one financial institution working in conjunction with SA government to improve property/home affordability by using the Department of Human Settlement extension which provide finance subsidy of up to R87 000.

Once your finance is approved, SA Home Loans will at your consent automatically link your finance to this subsidy. This subsidy is available through the program called Finance Linked Individual Subsidy Program, better known as FLISP Subsidy, which is offered by the Department of Human Settlement. FLISP Subsidy is available to first time property/home owners earning between R3 500 to R15 000 p/m, and it is just free government grand that has been underutalised by South Africans.

FLISP Subsidy is another topic on its own but unfortunately no article will be released on this very soon, if you are keen to know more on FLISP Subsidy, feel free to inbox African Arch with your e-mail address.

By African Arch Pty Ltd.

13/08/2016

Financing your property.

Finding the right finance is one challenge that faces many home buyers, especially first time home buyers. Finding the right finance for your property is the most critical and important step out of all steps involved in obtaining your property.

Ordinarily home finances ranges between a period of 5 to 30 years depending on the nature of your purchase and agreement with the financial institution involved. While there are a number of financial institutions one can choose from, there is no firm criteria or formula to identify one that offers the best finance. This will depend on the client needs which will obviously vary from one client to another.

Each financial institution will put up a competitive strategy that will cater for particular group of clients for it to get business. One may choose to charge its clients low interest rate for longer periods and other may choose to offer short periods but at higher interest rates. It is for each client to understand and appreciate each plan’s implication to his/her needs and affordability to actually determine a good finance from the bad one. A good finance plan is one within your affordability, reasonable payment period, and at reasonable interest rate.

Coming to South African reality, each and every financial institution (banks) have putted up a ring or partition to protect its business and client-base which unfortunately deprive clients of choice and diversity. This means choosing one bank over other comes at a cost.

Well there is one well endorsed financial institution that offers home/property finance products specially designed for South African market.

This article served as an introduction of the next article. "Important" is an understatement for the coming article which will serve to extend on the finance topic and will also discuss FLISP (government subsidy) which may spell affordability from unaffordability for first time property/home buyers.

By African Arch Pty Ltd

04/08/2016

African Arch is excited & happy to make an announcement that as a real estate company we have reached a point where as the company are making talks on possible associates with one of the top developing companies. Our aim is to give choice and make real estate ownership and investment even more open and of choices for our clients and interested parties. We are excited and this is thier work samples.

28/07/2016

Leverage

Let’s look at another interesting topic of leverage. Loans are a big thing in South Africa not for no reason. We have seen progress and economic inclusivity after the defeat of apartheid government, we have seen significant migration of individuals from low income group to middle income group and that is where things get interesting. Powerful and exciting enough, this article will look at common financial drawbacks that come with being credit worthy and a loophole to actually make fortune out of being credit worthy.

Being credit worthy simple means being eligible to borrow a particular amount of money from regulated financial institutions such as private banks, SA Home Loans, Old Mutual and other. There are a lot of things that are taken into consideration to determine one’s credit worthiness. An example is your total income, credit history, banking history, total expenditure (monthly), total ownership and security. Based on these, the financial institution will be able to identify your credit worthiness and the amount you qualify for. This amount is the total amount safe to borrow you within a specific period.

If not managed and used accordingly, being credit worthy can really set financial drawbacks for an individual. This is because being credit worthy means one can obtain and use borrowed money that has not been yet earned. Full extension or use of credit worthiness can deepens one’s financial freedom and possible well-being. This is from the fact that there is an inescapable cost of using money you have not yet earned (interest).

Well looking only at distress and financial depression under this topic would prove backwardness because there is a loophole to actually make fortune out of being credit worthy, and leverage is what one will have to grasp to actually make that possible.

Leverage means “strategic advantage and power to act effectively” and that is what credit worthiness should mean for one to actually turn this status to fortune. Use of borrowed money to amplify potential gains (leverage) is a good financial move. Gains should exceed cost of using borrowed money (interest) to actually make leverage profitable.

In South Africa, financial institutions have been sticking with an average of 15% interest on borrowings. Property is one investment portfolio that been able to maintain returns/gains above 15%. African Arch as one company taken up with creating real wealth for its clients, is one company that can turn your credit worthiness to actually work for you, not only for your financial institution.

By African Arch Pty Ltd.