It is now virtually certain that next weeks meeting of the SA Reserve Bank will result in a further interest rate hike '“ and, says Tony Clarke, MD of Rawson Properties, this time it is likely to be a full 100 base points (i.e. 1%) taking the interest rate to 15,5%. This is in the wake of the announced CPIX inflation rate that reached 9,4%.
'That,' says Clarke, 'will be a blow to many home owners who are already struggling to pay their bonds, it will deter investors, some of whom are now pulling out and convince many first-time home buyers that they now have no hope of getting onto the property owners ladder'
To put this in real terms, says Clarke, people with bonds in the region of R1 million are now paying close to R13 000 per month. A 1% rise in the interest rates will make it necessary for them to find an extra R750 per month.
'There is,' says Clarke, 'a growing suspicion that the consumer is bearing the full burden of the governments mistakes made a decade ago when they totally failed to appreciate how fast energy demands would rise. The load shedding and cut-backs on electricity supplies are a contributing cause of the current high inflation rate, now over 9%. Many industry leaders feel that the government should be using its reserves to bail out Eskom, rather than again hitting the consumer on whom, in the long run, the entire economy depends'
Other than the reserves, there are also allocated budgets that have not been spend in various governmental departments. 'As this money is not being used where it is, surely it should be used to help fund Eskom. We are in a national crisis and everyone, including local and national authorities have to contribute'
Asked if the much discussed rise in rentals, that is expected to follow the interest rate rise, will not at least partially compensate for the higher bond payments, Clarke said that most tenants are on fixed contracts and rent escalations traditionally kick in only a year or two years after the contract was signed.
'In any case,' he said, 'it is not the investors, it is the potential home owners at the bottom of the market that the government should be concerned about and as I have indicated these are rapidly abandoning their plans to buy, even in the lowest priced property arena'
