Jeff Mashigo, the first agent to operate in Soweto, said the supply of houses had not kept pace with demand. South Africa's lending rates, combined with rising disposable income attributable in part to tax cuts, low inflation and the growth of the black middle class, have contributed to a record surge in property prices. Soweto's oldest real estate agency, Mashigo Properties, says rising demand is a result of population growth and affordability. Living in townships was no longer seen as inferior, Loos said. "There was no commercial activity, while the suburbs were becoming mixed-use areas, which is why they became popular." "They are now catching up," John Loos, a property economist with FNB, said of housing and office developments. Prices in the townships have risen less sharply because of concerns over crime, a reluctance to sell and a lack of new developments. ![]() Some economists estimate that average house prices in South Africa's 200 billion rand ($32.8 billion) a year market have risen by 229 percent in the past six years. but there was just nothing in the areas I wanted," Rivombo said.Īccording to the home loans unit of the First National Bank group (FNB), the residential property boom experienced in Johannesburg's wealthy and mainly white suburbs is expected to spread to the townships. ![]() "I asked the agents for the place a while ago," Rivombo said. His pride and joy is located not in the wealthy northern suburbs of Johannesburg, but in Soweto, a township south of South Africa's financial capital that was created for blacks under apartheid. ![]() SOWETO, South Africa - After searching and waiting for six years, Russell Rivombo is about to move into a luxury, three-bedroom, double-garage house.
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