Mputla wrote to me with an interesting dilemma. He is 32 years old, married with two children. In 2016, he and his wife bought vacant land in a security estate with cash that they had saved for several years. The plan was to build within four...
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Video: Shopping around for mortgage insurance
When you take out a mortgage or bond, you will be required to take out life insurance. This is so that if something happens to you, the insurance will cover your mortgage repayments. This usually includes death, disability and possibly retrenchment...
What kind of access bond do you have?
Access bonds have different rules so it is important to understand how yours works. Last month Standard Bank customers received notification that they could choose between two different types of access bonds. While this caused some confusion, it...
Taking cash out of your home in retirement
A lack of retirement savings has seen a significant demand from pensioners to use their homes to access capital, especially for medical costs. A reverse equity mortgage is a special type of home loan that lets you convert a portion of the equity in...
How to pay off your home in ten years
By Rudi Botha, CEO of BetterBond If you have a R1m home loan, payable over 20 years at the current prime interest rate of 10%, you are set to pay more than R1,3m in interest by the time you’ve paid off that bond and the home is finally yours. But...
What happens to your joint mortgage when your partner is placed under debt review?
Your joint mortgage may form part of your partner’s debt review without your consent. If you are married in community of property and your spouse is placed under debt review, so will you, because you share a joint estate which includes all debt....
Factors to consider when ceding your life policy
By Lee Bromfield, CEO of FNB Life Many consumers who are eager to finalise the house-buying process often rush into taking out and ceding life insurance without first doing their homework. The ceding of a life policy involves legally transferring a...
Avoid being the victim of an unscrupulous builder
Many of us have either been the victim of unscrupulous building contractors or know someone who has been. My sister was one of those victims; despite hiring what she believed to be a reputable project manager to oversee her renovations, she was...
Student loan or home loan?
A reader recently wrote in, asking whether it would be better to pay for her child's university education from her access bond, or to take out a student loan. A student loan can be very cost effective and in most cases, you would be paying around...
How to ensure your home loan pre-qualification stays valid
There is a growing trend in South Africa towards home loan pre-qualification, with both buyers and sellers in real estate transactions putting more value now on financial preparedness. So says Shaun Rademeyer, CEO of BetterBond, SA’s biggest bond...
Previous Articles
What is FLISP and how do you qualify?
If your household income is between R3 501 and R15 000 per month, you could benefit from a government programme that could help you put a foot on the property ladder. As a first-time home buyer in South Africa, it’s not easy getting your foot onto the property ladder....
Pros and cons of a joint home loan
With the average house price for a first-time buyer nearly reaching the R1 million mark, few people can afford to buy a home on their own. A R900 000 home loan will require a monthly repayment of R8 800 – this is before you have even started paying for rates,...
How to avoid being turned down for a home loan
When you apply for a home loan, lenders will look at many factors before deciding whether to approve your application or not – and if you don’t “pass the test” for any one of these, they are quite likely to turn you down. “This is why it is so important for...
Tips for successful ‘semigration’
Making the move to the coast? Here’s how to lose less in an expensive transition. Many Gautengers dream of leaving their busy life in the big smoke and setting up a new, slower life in beautiful Cape Town. Unfortunately a lot of these dreams never come true because...
Understand the implications when drawing from your home loan
If you want to draw down on the equity built up in your property, you may be in for a nasty surprise. Paragon Lending Solutions recently issued a press release warning investors and small business owners that if they try and access additional capital through their...
To Airbnb or not to Airbnb?
According to a 2016 Fin24 interview with Nicola D’Elia, managing director for Airbnb Africa and Middle East, South African Airbnb hosts earn on average R28 000 a month by making their property available for short-term let via the popular sharing economy website....
Buying an investment property
When buying an investment property, you need to do your homework carefully to avoid your property becoming a financial ball and chain. While astute investors can make money, property has significant holding costs and is not as liquid as other investments. For anyone...
Liberty customers to get discount on new listing
If you are a Liberty customer you may want to take advantage of discounted shares in the new Liberty property listing. Towards the end of this year Liberty will be listing its premium property portfolio which includes the iconic Sandton City. The Liberty Property...
How to get a home loan: tips for freelancers and the self-employed
Applying for a home loan is stressful for most people, but this simple financial process can become disproportionately complex for entrepreneurs or freelancers ‒ people who have uncertain or unpredictable income flows. The rigorous affordability assessments required...
Pay off your mortgage or invest?
Should you throw all your spare cash into paying off your mortgage before even thinking about investing? As most mortgage repayments are set over a 20-year period, we looked at three possible scenarios in terms of accelerating mortgage repayments and investing in...