The Gloss is Back on Braamies

STUDENT accommodation, yuppie lofts, shiny corporate buildings, restaurants and night clubs, all underlined by the efforts of the City and private sector, are bringing the vibe back to Braamfontein.
More... http://www.joburg.org.za/content/view/4050/266/

July News Letter

Good Morning Investors

It has been quiet a biting winter, those of us with tenants in our units have not felt the cold as much as those who are looking, June/ July is always a quite time for landlords. Things have not been that quite on our side,

We have refined the way that we are looking after CBD units, with a big emphasis on our staff training. There have been one or two complaints about our agents not giving you, the landlord, the service you deserve.

Our business is to look after your unit so that you don’t have to worry about it. Our agents are paid for taking care of your needs, your feed back is very important to us. Our agents are aware that if we have any landlords that are not happy it is an opportunity for us to solve the issue; we are on hand to remove tat stress.

We are very excited about the CBD and believe that our landlords will see the rewards for there bold move. Despite the global financial crises our CDB’s have shown some resilience, with modest but steady rental growth across all of the major metropolises. In the first quarter of 2009, rental growth in Johannesburg 6%. In the other metropolises such as Durban (9%), Port Elizabeth (7%), Cape Town (6%) and Pretoria (5%), rental growth was also been slightly effected by rising vacancies
Given consumer inflation of 8, 4% for the first quarter of 2009 and real rental growth declined across the country we are still doing ok.

For those of you that don’t feel comfortable coming into town into the thick of the action, the next best thing is see it and hear it for yourself – on video. Get the City news, feel the Jozi vibe through these live action film clips. Read more

Lets not forget the 2010 Soccer, we are current perusing some options and will inform you of our progress so that we can arrange leases accordingly.

More than 55 000 soccer fans are yet to book accommodation for the 2010 Soccer World Cup and Seeff Properties and football icon Gary Bailey have joined forces in an innovative joint venture that will see South African property owners score by letting their homes to alleviate the crisis. Read more

End of a long Week

Our first week of May 09 is finished,

We have had a very interesting week; we are still battling to get the true rent value for the Colosseum. We have had huge resistance from prospective tenant that we tell the rent is R3500 and they have friends the have unit for R2500.

We find this desperately frustrating as we are investors ourselves and have to repair and suffer the mistakes others. However life is not always plain sailing and it will go on no matter how much you complain.

So we have got creative and are approaching the building from a new point of view. We have been spending our time visiting the surrounding businesses (incl Standardbank and ABSA) to create exposure for the building and get local companies to see the value in their staff having quality accommodations so conveniently situated.

We are starting to see some pay off and it looks like things are going to start turning for the good.

In hard time you need to identify the problems that you are facing and then get busy with creative ways so solve them,

Exciting Times

Many property experts (as well as us) are predicting that the property market will start to take a turn for the better in the latter half of this year. To prepare for this upturn, We suggest that those interested in getting into the market start doing their homework now. Start looking at your options, work out what you can comfortably afford and try and get into the market as soon as you detect an improvement.
We must stress that the world has see some tough times over the last 12 months. There has been alot of artifical lowering of interest rates to help stimulate markets. This might cause a hyper inflation senario in 2 to 3 years time. We will be doing a little story on fixing your rates later in the year to give you all the pros and cons.

for now start doing your home work and start looking for those great deals,