i'd like to hear your views on this. I'm considering bying a beach front/city center apt in durban or a house in soweto. This is purely speculative and based on the hope that (1) the value of the property will increase over time (2) I will be able to hire a managment company to do the leasing + income.

anyone on here has any experience with this type of investments ?

:)

I'd say have a look at the new apartments being built in & around the Victoria Embankment (Magret Mcandi) area, for eg: the project being discussed in St Geoges Str, its reasonably priced & the area is on an up, maybe it will take long to get the area fully rejuvenated but plans are inplace to make the area thrive like before.

I cant really say much of Beachfront properties as i hail from Joburg (leave that to Mo Rush and Durbsboi). But i am putting my money in inner city apartments in Joburg. These are only headed on a one-way street and that is up! My rationale is as follows:-

- Joburg's decline has bottomed out, we are now past the worst
- Urban sprawl is no longer sustainable and bulk infrastructure can't cope
- Development for the next coming decade is going to centre around the Gautrain stations
- Joburg is the only viable option as it offers all the infrastructure (highways, electricity, water, sewage, railways, centrality etc)
- Joburg is already built up with attractive rentals and pockets of successful improvement districts are emerging fast
- Joburg's FIFA 2010 stadiums are all around or near Joburg CBD
- Confidence levels for Joburg's revitalization are now high and continue to rise fast while investors are pouring money
- Sandton simply doesn't have enough land to develop it into a big CBD and the highway infrastructure is still limited
- Sandton will simply remain the financial district of the city

Township properties are a fantastic investment at the moment with average increases of around 40% in the last year!

^^ yes but problems with leasing from afar. If you want to lease it thru a management company, i would first contact a few in the Durban and joburg region and find what returns you can expect to get via them.

2ndly I would recommend the Vic Embankment or new CBD dev's in durban. There are many new builds going up and this is having a very upward effect on the existing apartments. I bought 2 years ago however and my property on the embankment has nearly tripled in value in that time.

Ok, I've looked into this and it seems really hard to secure financing and leasing from everseas. Nonetheless I'm still interested in buying SA CBD/Towship property. It drives me crazy to see flats in joburg going for ZAR 100 000 or 2 bed houses around CT for ZAR 300 000 and not be able to buy. My view is that the value of those properties will increase dramaticaly over the next 5 - 10 years.

anyway, I know this is a long shot, but if anyone is intrested is setting up a structure (offshore company...) to acquire such assets, I'll definitely throw in a few thousand ZAR. Or if you know any mutual funds that specialise is this segment of the market let me know.

to be honest i'd be very cautious getting a R300k place in CT unless u are 100% certain of the surroundings of the unit

an affordable location in CT would be woodstock, but get in there soon because the good deals wont last very long