Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa May 2013 | Page 23
REI Residential
Body Corporate
Responsibilities
Loans For 18k Earners
Demand For Residential
Property Picking Up
If maintenance to a section is in continued
disrepair should the body corporate intervene?
SA Home Loans, South Africa’s largest nonbank specialist home loan provider, has entered
the affordable housing market, a development
that spells welcome news for house hunters
earning less than R18 000 per month. SA Home
Loans Chief Executive Kevin Penwarden says
now, lower income earners have access to the
same innovative, consumer friendly approach
to mortgage lending that’s helped more than
150 000 individuals and families purchase
their own homes. He says affordable housing is
a major segment of the South African housing
market, with properties valued bet ween
R250 000 and R500 000 making up more than
a quarter of all registered residential properties.
In recent weeks, the question has begun to
arise as to why it would be that the household
sector’s consumer spending growth has become
increasingly constrained, while simultaneously
it would appear that residential property
demand has been noticeably picking up.
This would appear surprising to some, as it
is the same household sector with the same
frail f inancial situation that spends both
on consumer goods and services as well as
on housing. And a “partial reprioritisation”
in household spending may just mean that
a gradually rising need for new residential
properties further constrains already pressured
consumer spending growth.
The classic situation in which this question is
asked is when an owner fails to repair a leak in
their section and the leak damages a section
below. This can result from leaks in balconies,
kitchens or bathrooms. Section 44(1)(c) places
the obligation to maintain and repair sections
squarely on the shoulders of the owners.
The body corporate is only responsible for
the maint ????????????????????????????)???????%?????????????????????????)???????????????????????????????????)?????????????????????????????????????)????????????????????????????????????)???????????????????????????????()Y???????%????()5???? ?????)