Despite weak economic fundamentals resulting in negative real house price growth, the banking industry continues to show confidence in South Africa’s property market by further relaxing their lending criteria and approving home loan finance at levels last seen 12 years ago.

Often when we attend to property transfers we find that home owners are caught unawares of the compliance certificates that are required when selling a house and are subsequently shocked by the associated costs which they did not budget for.

Property owners now only have one month left to set in motion the tax-free transfer of any residential properties they currently hold in legal entities such as companies, close corporations and trusts into their own names.