 Good evening and welcome to episode 314 of the Private Property Podcast. I'm your host Osama Doma Komalo. If you're joining us for the first time, welcome to the only Daily Property Podcast in South Africa. And of course, we're here to help you along on all your property needs. So do make sure that you go to our Facebook or our YouTube page to catch up on all the great content that you've already missed out on. And to all our regular viewers on Facebook and Instagram as well as on YouTube, welcome to it. You know how we do every single weekday you and I have an appointment at 7 p.m. We're always in conversation with the property expert who helps us make better property decisions. It doesn't matter where in the property, your space you are, where in your property journey you are, you could be renting right now looking to be a better renter, perhaps even looking to buy your first property or of course growing or expanding your property portfolio. We certainly do cater to you throughout your journey. And of course, you know how we do it. This, you know, we're going to be looking at something that I'm very excited about. But before we get into it, you know that there's a whole host of other shows that you can look forward to, Private Property's social media pages. As it is a Tuesday, I do hope that everybody had a great long weekend. We're able to rest. We're not here last night. And you would have seen a great competition that we're running. I'm going to tell you all about it right now if you didn't see it on our Facebook page. Of course, you can catch, as it is a Tuesday evening, you can catch a wardening farmer on the farming podcast. And she's on your screens every single Wednesday, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8 p.m. So if you've got agricultural ambitions, or perhaps just want to get a bit of sense of how, you know, our food is produced in the value chain within the agricultural sector, then that is a show that you can tune into. And every Wednesdays, Esther Klassen takes us through the First Time Homebuyer's show, which is always in conversation with people who've not only walked that first time homebuying journey, but have gone on to grow their property portfolios from strength to strength. And of course, Mondays and Fridays, Chad takes us through the Home Shuckless Show. It always gives us a great tour of incredible properties that you can find on www.privateproperty.co.za. So to continue engaging with us on social media, watching the shows and certainly for the next few weeks, you stand a chance of walking away with some cash if you do just that. Now, I did mention that we're running a great competition where we are doing a build up to 1 million followers on our Facebook page. We certainly have big ambitions, not only 1 million followers. We're also looking at 10,000 comments because we absolutely love hearing from you. And of course, 5,000 shares. So every single evening, I say to you, keep sharing the lives as you're watching them, because we want to make the property circle bigger. We want your friends and family to see not only what you're watching, but of course, also get great value from the content that we put out. And as I was saying, you stand a chance of walking away with 500 grand as we build up to those big goals and certainly reaching 1 million followers. And all you have to do when we share the competition details also on our Facebook page, all you have to do is essentially continue engaging with us. You can share, you can comment and certainly rate our page on Facebook. And the more you engage with our page and with us, the higher your chances of winning that cash prize. Now, the rules are simple. I'm going to go through the rules because this is one where we all want to make sure we're on the same page. Now, you can comment as many times as you want on the post, as I was saying earlier, and do tune in every single weekday on the private property podcast with myself as I'm going to walk with Malo every single weekday at 7pm for the winner announcement. And the winner will be given until the end of the podcast to claim their prize. And the money will carry over to the following episode if the winner doesn't claim the prize. So you have to actually be watching us live in order for you to claim the prize. So do make sure if you entered, you've commented, that you actually tune in in the event where you are the winner. Now, the winner is selected randomly and the winner will be selected using the comment random collector. And so this is essentially, if you comment the more times you comment, the more you essentially spend a chance of winning. So do make sure that you continue engaging us in social media and commenting because, of course, you will spend a chance of winning that money. Now, I will be announcing, you know, the winner shortly, I will be announcing the winner in the halfway mark, so do watch out for that. And of course, they also have an opportunity to claim their prize. But before we get to all things once, so really the big thing we're counting down to a million followers, and of course, growing our reach on Facebook, especially on our Facebook page, this competition was on our Facebook page, so do make sure that you continue engaging with us. Our conversation this evening is one that I was saying, I'm very excited for looking at opportunities for women in real estate buying in the current environments. Now, we're going to break down this conversation from, you know, if you're first time home buyers of women, if you're looking to upscale or upgrade your current lifestyle, perhaps you've been living in an apartment, whether it's a one-bit or a two-bit, you're not looking to move into a cluster or a house, you know, what should you be aware of? What are some of the do's and don'ts? And then also looking at the savvy property investor who's probably got two or three, you know, individual units as their investment, and now looking to go slightly bigger, right? Where you're probably wanting that small block of flats, because you also understand that you don't want to buy it off more than you can choose. You first just want to get, how do you even go about doing the due diligence of, you know, a block of flats? What are some of the do's and don'ts once you're at that level of managing your property portfolio? There's some of the things that we're going to be looking at this evening. Remember, do continue engaging us down here below because you stand a chance of walking away with that 500 grand in cash. Well, my guest this evening is Vilna Havinga, who's a property specialist at Auction Inc. Vilna, good evening. Thank you so much for joining us on the show. Good evening, Zamo. Thank you for having me. It's such a pleasure to have you, Vilna, especially after the long weekend that we've had. I kept saying to the viewers at home, even when we started off from this month that for the month of August, we're only speaking to women throughout the month. So our guests are only going to be women because we know that they're women in real estate who are authorities on all the different topics that we have, and we want to hear from them. And as much as we already always have women on the show, but we say for this month, we're going to be delivered for only having women on the show. So it really is a pleasure to have you with us on the day after women's day. Now, Vilna, I think this topic excites me quite a lot because we're really going to be helping women at different stages of their property journey. From those who are looking at buying their first property and are probably very intimidated, as many of us typically do tend to be intimidated with buying a property and signing on a 20-year-long commitment, to those, of course, who've been at it for a while and they're looking at scaling their property portfolio and perhaps even buying a small block of flats within their property portfolio. But I want us to look, firstly, just holistically, before we sort of look in those pockets of the different women, holistically, when we look at the buying environment, what should we be aware of before we even decide to wear that buy or even sell a property that we currently have? Because I think I want us to first just look at a holistic picture before we then go specifically to the first time home buyer, the one who's working to upscale and then, of course, the more savvy property investor. 100%. Just repeat your questions, Amal. So my question is just from a holistic perspective, can you just share the light for us in terms of how the property landscape or the environment is for those who are currently looking to buy or those who perhaps may be looking to sell their property at this stage? Yes, look currently you're sitting with an absolute buyer's market with the interest rate being as low as it is. So anybody that can afford to buy that's renting should really reconsider and purchase a property if they haven't purchased the property. So that's the first thing. We're sitting with one of the lowest interest rates in a year. So it's an absolute buyer's environment. It's not such a great seller's market because of that. So there's a lot of stock on the market, but the price is because there's a lot of stock is very competitive. And so I think we've covered in the previous conversation we had as well, but your buyers that's buying because they're going to live on a property is probably going to spend a bit more than an investor. But again, there's such a lot of, there's a huge scope. Are you going to buy a piece of land and build or you're rather going to buy something that has been built and developed because might cost you a little cheaper at the moment. We can buy something bigger, but there's pros and cons to both of that. So current and market environment is absolutely a buyer's market. And then one of the great things with it being a buyer's market and I can already assure the viewers will look for a different episode. What you can do in the event where you're looking to offload your property because I think as Vilna's pointing out it's a buyer's market, not so much a seller's market. And some sellers are sometimes struggling to get the price point that they may want. So we'll probably do a very different episode along tips and tricks of selling your property during a buyer's market, especially where you might be desperate to offload that particular property. And it might be your desperation because of your finances, or because there's another property that you're eyeing. So you really do need that off your books as much as possible. So do watch out for that episode. We're definitely going to have it because I know there are a number of people who have also just struggled to sell their properties. So then of course, Vilna, when you look at the buyer's market and how buyers are fundamentally spoiled for choice right now, let's zoom in on the first time home buyers who are women and are looking to buy that first property. And perhaps they are renting, perhaps staying at home or have been staying with friends because I think one of the things as professionals that we do is sometimes you stay with friends and you do a house share. But now you're really ready to enter the property market as a home owner. I think what would be some things that you would warn a first time home buyer who is buying right now during this period with the historically low interest rates? What would you warn them about? Because I'm sure they're excited. They want to take advantage of the low prices. But there are of course certain things that they need to be aware of before they kind of go head first with their purchase. Yes, of course, I think the biggest thing always to start with is finance. So make sure that the affordability of the property keeping in mind interest rate might not stay where it is for the next 10 years obviously. So keep in mind that the prices might escalate. But also keep in mind that if you buy a property, there are other expenses that you need to consider like your levies, your rates and taxes with the property depending if you're buying in a estate or private property or a freehold property. That's something that you need to consider as well. And obviously when you're a home owner, your expenses to a property should also keep in mind your maintenance. So there might be garden expenses. It was not an estate maintenance issues on a property. So I think that's the first thing I would say to a first time buyer is to keep in mind the expenses that you have to incur when you buy a property. It's not just the bond that you have to repay, but there might be other expenses. So make 100% sure that you are covered for that. The second thing I would say to a first time buyer is where you're going to buy this property. Are you buying again? Are you buying in an estate? And what are the pros and cons to being in an estate? They're just a freestanding property. Are you buying a piece of land? You're going to build your own property or your dream house there. So that's also always making a list on making sure of exactly what you want to achieve and what are you looking for. And then the location, the area that you want to buy this property is very important. For me coming from an auction house, auction bank, it's always good to know that if you want to buy maybe a property that either distressed property or just the private sale, which is a faster process, again, we said the funding must be in place, but that you know exactly what you're looking for. That might be for someone that is already a property owner, but that wants to expand their property as it's a bit more challenging for someone to go through the auction process if they don't understand it. So I think that would be my shortest advice at this stage. We are of course this evening in conversation with Vilna Haverga, who is a property specialist, who is a property specialist at Auction Inc. And we are looking opportunities for women in the real estate, in real estate buying in the current environments. And we really have been focusing on the first-time home buyers, some of the things that you need to watch out for before you buy that first property. Because it's such an important one and as much as it's a buyer's market, you want to make sure that you don't make mistakes that can potentially cost you money. I think time is probably a different one altogether. Certain things can cost you a bit of time, especially if you decide to buy land to build. And I always say to first-time home buyers, try to not do that as your first property purchase. Because building is quite stressful. I think building as so many components is very stressful. You typically wouldn't want that as your first property experience. And so I think that one aside, you want to make sure that you're able to be as cost-efficient as possible throughout your property journey. Now then Vilna, when we look at women who already have bought a property, perhaps a living in that particular property and are looking to upgrade, as we're saying, we're looking at really great interest rates. Perhaps they've owned this property for a few years and they're looking at upgrade. What mistakes should they avoid? Because at the very least, they have a good sense of the costs associated with home ownership, whether they're living in an estate or it's a free-standing property. They know that to either paying levies, you're paying rates, utilities are to your own account. So they've got that aspect. What should they be particularly aware of right now as they look to upgrade, whether you're now moving from an apartment or cluster, or perhaps even a house as opposed to an apartment? Yes. Again, the experience that comes along with the upgrade of the property, if they're buying a second property that they're going to rent out as an investment, it's very important that the rental agent or that they maybe work with the rental agent to assist them getting the right tenant into that property. For them, obviously they want to look at return and investment. Make sure that the tenant that they put in that property is someone that's reputable, that's got a good track record, that's got good finance, pay their rents monthly because it could be very challenging. If you sit with a new property that you have to pay and you've got a tenant that's not paying the rent, can you afford to cover that for two or three or four months? Because getting someone out of a property might be very challenging. It's not that we want to be negative about it, just try and cover your risks beforehand by making sure you've got a rental agent, maybe that's registered with TPA, which is a body that looks at the track records of the tenants in there. If they want to live in the new property themselves, also make sure that the maintenance in that property is up to date, make sure that the electricity bills or utility bills are up to date so that they don't get surprises when they buy this property and they might have costs that they did not expect. Out of all that from you at home, women who own property right now or women who are looking to buy property, if you're a woman who's about to be a first time home buyer, what are some of the key things that you are slightly nervous about when it comes to home ownership? Perhaps you're currently renting and of course looking to make that lead into owning your property or buying a property, what are some of your reservations about buying a property? And to the women who already bought a property for and who are home owners, what were things that you learned after you bought your property that you only realized after the fact? So do share with us down here below. I'm in conversation with Wilner Haven, I was a property specialist at Auction Inc. Now I did say earlier under the beginning of the show that halfway through we're going to be announcing the lucky winners who of course are going to be walking away with that 500 grand in cash. But if I play this quickly before I announce those lucky winners, of course these winners are chosen as you will see via a record. So the more times you comment the higher the chance of you walking away with that 500 grand in cash. As well as Oriabbe 3-Mashishi, congratulations and order to be able to claim your prize before the end of the show. So do stay tuned for tomorrow's money back and see if you're the winner of our one million Rand followers on Facebook. So you do need to claim that prize before the show down here below. So do make sure that you get to it so that the team can reach out to you once you have claimed your prize. So we do have 1000 Rand in the money bag in the event where we do not get the winners to claim their prize. Now of course I'm in conversation this evening with Wilner Haven, the property specialist at Auction Inc. And we're looking at opportunities in real estate for women and how the current buying market is like. Whether you're a first-time home buyer looking to upgrade your property portfolio or rather looking to upgrade your to a new home or of course looking to expand your property portfolio. And I really like the insights that you shared with us Wilner when it comes to understanding costs because I think this is one of those two big areas that catch so many of us off guard when we buy a property. I've seen it a lot with first-time home buyers. I've had the same issue. Sometimes people don't know that you're going to be paying for levies and rates. They think you know and I know this is a thing that also happened to me while I knew about levies. I didn't know that I also still have to pay rates in addition to paying levies. I thought well the levies pretty much cover the money that you know is paid to the municipality. Only to later find that no actually I also need to pay the municipality in addition to the levies. So not having a good understanding of these things obviously catches up with that. Especially if you are with buying that first property or upgrading. If you buy that property sort of at the tail end of your affordability these costs that you don't budget for will certainly lead to lifestyle creeps. So you really want to be aware of them as much as possible perhaps even factor in a 10% increase in those costs and see if you're still able to be comfortable in your budget. So as I asked earlier I want to find out from you at home if you're about to be a first-time home buyer what are some of your reservations about making that leap into home ownership. Do you share with us and of course the women who have already bought property or properties before. What did you learn after you bought your first property that you absolutely do wish you had learned prior to that first purchase. Now Vilna I want us to look at the third sort of category of women right. So these are the savvy investors. We certainly do have quite a number of them who watch the show from Mimata Shinange, Gleed Chirinda, you know Queen Bee Mabunda. There's quite a number of them who watch the show. They're property investors and they're obviously looking at different ways to grow and scale their portfolios. When we're now looking at women who've got a few properties under their belt that they're managing and they're looking to say for example buy that first block of flats. So it's a slightly bigger purchase and it's certainly got more you know beds to cater for and the whole other things to look out for. What should they be firstly aware of when it comes to buying that kind of we'll call it asset class when you're not buying a block of flats and it can be multi you know multi-use where it's the let's say 10 units and perhaps the ground floor you've got two you know two shops. So there's a commercial component to it as well. What should they be aware of when they start making those kinds of purchases or adding those kinds of purchases to their property portfolio? Sure Zama yes I think the hidden costs could be something that they need to look at which you know we've discussed it as well with your first new second-time buyers but when you buy a property that's either got commercial rights included or just a block of flats you want to make sure that for every square meter of that property there's an income related to that square meter specifically on the on the retail side so make sure that there's no wasted areas and that you can capitalise as much as possible or utilise as much as possible off that building to turn it into a money generating asset for you. On the blocks of flats you know there's various options you can either rent out the flat to long term tenants or you can even subdivide some of the flats for example the student accommodation or for lower budget housing but you can put more people in a flat if you rent it out per room which is also popular in certain areas so depending on where the block of flats is situated you know you sit with various options to increase the income of the property so I would say that it would be the biggest thing for any third-time investor to look at is what can I do to optimise income of this property and obviously utilise you know we've seen so many times that your electricity bill if you put prepaid meters in for example that's something that's very easily doable but the cost is much less for you and it's much more cost effective when you've got prepaid electricity and even possibly prepaid water meters so it can bring you know the administration of that could be much easier but they don't go as well and then the maintenance with the management of the block of flats are you going to do it yourself if you're going to get someone to do it you must also factor in the cost involved for a management agent to do it for you these pros and cons to both of it doing yourself or getting someone to do it for you with advantages to both sides so those are things that you know for you to consider when you buy the block of flats and then obviously living in South Africa security security might be a very big thing for you not to consider to make sure that your your block of flats is secure for the tenants and obviously you don't want to turn over in your in your tenants that live there so I would factor a cost for security as well into that and that you know will now we could probably have a whole episode when we're looking at buying you know buildings that can be for commercial use as well and and we're actually well I'm going to promise viewers that we're going to do an episode on that because I know that increasingly more and more people want to venture into that someone to build so looking as we're saying earlier you know buying a piece of land and rather building themselves from scratch so that they they know that they're putting in those prepaid meters from the get go prepaid electricity from the get go as opposed to having to you know buy a building where those were not put in and now you have to have the extra cost of sort of almost redoing certain aspects of the electrical supply and the water supply which can be quite costly and especially the bigger the project is the more costly and it tends to be when it comes to buying those kinds of properties well now what have been some I'll say common mistakes that you've seen people making especially the newbies who've never quite bought you know a block of flats before any mistakes that you'd like to share that you've seen purchases making when buying blocks of flats yes I think that was that must keep in mind because it's a block of flats with or without a commercial component it will be a commercial deal with the banks so let's consider that it's not somebody that's buying a property cash they need to put a deposit down and the the payback period for a commercial property is much less than with a residential property so for anybody that wants to venture into properties doesn't matter if it's your second property that you're buying or if you want to venture into commercial properties it's very good to build a relationship with a business broker or a bond originator that can maybe do both residential or commercial or you'll get your specialist that only do residential or commercial so do your homework and make sure that you understand 100% how it's structured with the banks because often the banks are going to say to you you have to put a 20 or a 30 sometimes even a higher deposit down on a commercial property and your payback might to be 10 years instead of 20 years so that's something that that you need to consider also make sure that when you do your due diligence on the property that you make sure you've got up-to-date plans of the property and everything associated with that the zoning of the property the zoning rights all of that the plans that's approved by city council because if you have to do it on application or it could even cause you to lose a deal if it's not in place so make sure that all the paperwork is being handed to you when you sign that offer to purchase and it's up-to-date well now before I let you go any final tips for you know women particularly women who are going to be buying during this buyer's market whether they're first time home buyer they're looking to upgrade of course the savvy investor any final tip for them that can help them on their property training yes I think again location is very important go on private property as much as possible and look at what the properties in a specific area are selling for so that you know you was always keep in mind that whatever you buy you have to resell that property at some stage so make sure that you know the maintenance of that property needs to be taken care of 100% and that whatever you do you don't overpriced a property so that it's difficult for you to sell that property that you've got a growth factor worked in to the the cost for it say you're going to keep it for five years or ten years or even maybe in a family trust but that this is stable growth so don't overcapitalize on the property so do your homework do your research in an area go on private property and look at what properties and that area in relation to what you want to buy is selling for but we'll now we're going to leave it there this evening thank you so much for joining us thank you Zamaf I appreciate and that is we'll now having those property specialists at Auction Inc wrapping up the Tuesday edition of the private property podcast with myself as I'm doing what malud has been a pre-recorded interview I'll be back on your screens tomorrow evening live to bring you the latest installment of the private property podcast with myself as I'm doing what malud until then hoping you're staying home and staying safe