Dear Members

I think many investors have written South Africa off due to the recent price increases since 2003. But I still think that there is a LOT of potential still to come.

Reasons are as follows:

1. The emergence of a black middle-class known as 'Black Diamonds'.

2. The 2010 Soccer World Cup.

3. The ratio of Disposable Income to Household Debt which is still only at 76%

4. 93% of Land Claims by the have been completed.

5. Interest Rates are still at 25 year lows from a height of 25% in 1998.

Anyone agree / disagree?

disagree the country is getting more and more unstable..

North Africa has better potential, namely Morocco plus it's only a 3 hour flight.

Wait until SA hosts the Best Soccer World Cup yet in 2010

By then it would be too late to invest.........

Sent a client of mine down to view a couple of places and have an extended hol before making her mind up to move permanently. She had always dreamed of living there.
I have a SA guy who works with me from time to time and he had tried to explain the perils of every day life there to her but to no avail.

Well, she found out he was not exagerating a bit. Each prop was in a compound, electronic gates and most with armed security and warnings never to go out at night alone and without your gun. Sounds almost as violent as Manchester!

Now I have never been to SA and have never had any overwhelming urge to visit so I cannot relate to this as a way of life.

My client is coming back next week having had a wonderful holiday but her mind made up not to move out there. Can't say I blame her.

Now don't come back slagging me off - I am merely passing on the views of a South African whose home is now in the New Forest and had no desire to return to his homeland and a visitor who has had her dream cruelly shattered.
l

i am from the north of Ireland, .....i left Ireland in my mid 20's to work in South Africa.......

...Belfast was is a kids party compared to Johannesburg.....
Durban held the title as murder capital of the world, that year and retained the title for several years since i was there...

...anyone who tells you different is talking c**p......and is probably just trying to sell you property there......

since the "new" government took over crime has shot (excuse that word) through the roof...in fact, when i was there the prisions were full and the brainwave they come up with was to release everyone and start again......the place went mad...stories of the previous days deaths in one of the local newspapers when from 1 page to 3 pages...in the space of a month....

Capetown has a very dangerous area just outside the city called the "cape flats"......prob one of the worst places in the whole country.....

dont be buying a place there when you can buy somewhere much safer and closer to home..if you have kids then there is no way you would relax out there.....

thailand or somewhere would be a much nicer place to buy in....once the politics is sorted out...

ps. belfast is a great place now, actually very like disneyland with alcohol...*hic

I am working for an estate agent in Fortaleza, Brazil and have just struck up a partnership with a South African estate agent. He believes there will be a lot of demand from South Africans buying property abroad as many South Africans with a bit of money are looking to get out of the country because of the way the current government is letting the country go to the dogs.... crime especially.

The government have a lot of work to do if they don't want the 2010 World Cup to be the most dangerous ever from a spectator point of view.

gmb - I'd like to talk to you. See your private messages.
Thanks Lewis

Lewis, I tried contacting you but had my emails returned undeliverable and can't send PM's on this thing for some reason?

In the first place, this South African living in New Forest is obviously trying to justify his decision to stay in the UK, rather than go back in South Africa. If you get him drunk and then ask him........he'll probably tell you that he misses home more than he cares to mention.

And as for the lady who went to visit SA, she probably had the time of her life and is afraid to tell you that, so as to avoid getting berated by persons who have not yet visited the country.

South Africa, with all it's problems WILL still host the best Soccer World Cup EVER !! Mark my words

Its going to be a great world cup. meanwhile SA wil continue turning into the new Zimbabwe

Don't always believe what you read in the newspapers.......

Two words: Jacob Zuma
Read the news and take the risks.

At the moment, everyone is jumping into property in SA. It's probably a little behind in terms of the bubble but holiday home values are on a par with those in UK. I don't think that there is much growth potential left, but it's going to take more than a credit crunch to dent the SA market - SA produces real things that tend to do pretty well regardless. So look carefully at the political situation and take your chances with Zuma.

I looked at S Africa 5 years ago. I had the opportunity to work there for a couple of months & it was being touted then as the "next hotspot"...so you can be sure I took advantage to research it from a property investment standpoint whilst I was on the spot!
I found some wonderful properties around Capetown and to the south of the city...ranging from stylish seaside apartments to gorgeous countryside properties. The countryside is absolutely beautiful...staggeringly so in parts and the prices were incrediblely cheap especially as the exchange rate then was very good. BUT we didn;t buy there. During my stay, I also noted the following:
1. High AIDS/HIV rates that were being ignored by the government & which apart from the human tragedy, in the future could spell disaster for potential economic growth
2. Pockets of high levels of violence, Joberg & Durban apart, we were warned not to stand in the street after 5pm in the evening in the business district and to ensure that our card doors were locked at all times when travelling.
3. Many properties advertised "panic rooms" - secure areas of the house where you can retreat to if broken into and "sit it out"
4. General unease as to what the future might bring, post Mandela, (the goverment wasnt exactly covering itself with glory at the time)

We are not professional investors, we only invest in places where we would be happy to live...and sadly SA, lovely as it is, was not it.