 As a property investor, what should I start looking out for because this might just give me conflicting opinions and I might not know now what to do because it's not obvious. So what would you say an investor should do? Tonight we are talking investing, the rules, the risks, and the rewards with apps up. This is the Private Property Podcast, I'm Giddy, wishing you all a happy Africa Day. Tonight we're going to find out how to not have your money jiggle, jiggle but fold by investing safely and clearly it is possible for investors to mitigate risks and take advantage of opportunities to multiply the money in their pockets. Congratulations once again to Lompo Melle Lundlobo for walking away with that 500 grand cash prize from yesterday's show. Don't miss out on a shot and walking away with that prize. Join the conversation tonight on Facebook and comment as many times as you can and stand a chance to win 500 grand cash. Okay, so now that we have those formalities out of the way, it's time for today's five prospects with Apsa. The Apsa Accumulation Personal Portfolio allows you to have a hybrid of local, international equities, fixed income as well as property and money market tools. Number two, Apsa's tax-free savings account gives investors the power to use your tax-free allowance to grow your money year on year. Number three, when you invest with Apsa you qualify for bonus cash which rewards your investment account on its birthdays. Number four, this portfolio invests in commercial, industrial and retail property which is a diversification across the entire property sector. And number five, an investor can use expected rental income for property to be purchased, adding to their affordability as well as enabling them to grow their portfolios further. And because it's Africa Day, here's a bonus fact, Apsa Group Ltd has holdings in Tanzania and Mozambique, making them one of the most valuable banks in Africa. And that's it for the five fast facts for today. Hopefully, you now know how to make your investment goal become an investment reality. Tonight's illustrious guest is the head of product management and development for Apsa's home loans division. The man certainly knows the stuff when it comes to property finance and investment, being a property investor himself. It's my pleasure to introduce no strangers to the private property podcast. Ladies and gentlemen, Miguel Martin, who's joining us again tonight. Miguel, good evening and thank you so much for joining us. Hey, Tommy, thanks so much for having me. Good to be back. It's always a pleasure, you know, talking about property investments and anything and everything in the property space. So let's jump right into our conversation tonight and talk about the two reports that just came out recently that were released that are in the property investment space. Can you tell us more about them? Yeah, so it's so interesting. There were two reports and they're actually giving us very conflicting views of what's happening in the market at the moment. And it really requires some thought and digestion to understand and take the real insights out of these reports. So the first report is the Apsa home loan incentive index. So this is a survey that we do every quarter with about 12,000 respondents. And we asked them all sorts of questions that relate to owning property, investing in property, renovating property, selling property. And what we measure there is how is their confidence, either one of those property transactions? How is that moving from quarter to quarter? And it really gives us a good indication to the direction of where that sentiment is going. And if we look back in terms of what happened during the quarter, we can really find correlations between what's happening in the market and what our respondents are telling us. So just to give an indication, overall, respondents told us that their confidence was improving. It improved from 79% at the end of 2021. At the end of this last quarter, it's the end of April, and it moved up to 81%. So definitely improving the level of confidence overall for the market. But when we looked at investors, and so what is the confidence level from a basement perspective, it actually declined from 79% at the end of 2021, down to 78%. So now it will be declining at 79% positively, but it's definitely declining and going counter to the overall sentiment. That was the one report, and that is interesting in itself, that we're getting in different directions. Then we have the other report, our partners in the rental property market, TPN, and they put out also their own surveys and they analyze their own data. And at the end of last year, they're good standing ratio. So that's a percentage of tenants who are paying their rent on time. That increased 81%, up from the lows of around 71%, right in the middle of COVID in 2021. So we're almost back to almost pre-COVID levels in that regard. Rental escalations were at 1% at the end of last year, 1% year on average. Now that's increased, but increased from 0%, just below 0%. So we went positive territory, but still pretty flat, not great, but at least moving in the right direction. And then the report that came out very recently was their vacancy report. So this is key. At the end of last year, they reported 13% vacancies in terms of the number of properties that were standing empty. That's dropped down significantly to 8.3%. So really positive numbers pointing to a recovery in the rental market, not out of the woods yet, but definitely really strong green shoots in that space. But it's these two reports, our home and a sentiment index, and then TPN's numbers that are really kind of pointing in different directions at the moment. And with this difference, and then pointing in different directions, like you say, what does this data now mean about the investor's market? As a property investor, what should I start looking out for? Because this might just give me conflicting opinions, and I might not know now what to do because it's not obvious. So what would you say an investor should do? And that's exactly it, right? I think investors find themselves in a space at the moment where they're either coming, if they're existing investors and they're going to get a good one or two or a couple of rental apartments, they're coming out of two really tough years where there was weak demand, tenants may have defaults, they might have had to go a couple of months without receiving rental income, et cetera. So coming out of two really tough years, and now trying to recover from that, rebuild their savings pools, et cetera. So that's on the one side. But on the other side, we're starting to see a recovery as you saw in the TPN data. That's real data, but the confidence labels are maybe lagging in that. And investors probably need a bit more proof. Proof in their own portfolios, proof in how they, in the discussions they have with other investors, that actually the market is starting to turn. So I think we're right in the middle point of the market where it's probably hits a bottom. It's starting to turn. There are still many risks in the market. We can talk a little bit more about that. But and that's where I think investors find themselves. Sure. And let's talk about new investors. Someone is new in the market and prospectively going in. You know, there was a huge conversation around how this is a buyer's market. You know, if you want to buy property, this is the best time to buy it. And you know, now the climate is slowly changing because of the interest rates going up and all the different other factors. So let's talk about someone who's a prospective investor, who's going into the market. You know, what are some of those things that they need to start being aware of? And maybe precautionary measures as well to, you know, to ensure that their investment is lucrative. Yeah, absolutely. So so what I'm so I'm not homeless office. It's it's a homeless investors is the is the ability to go to TPN to pool rental data at a suburb level. And so the investor has the data available to them to make good decisions when it comes to buying new properties and expanding their portfolios. So really, what I can recommend to new investors is do the numbers, run the numbers in terms of the value of the property, what that's going to cost you per month, the levies, the running costs, what rentals you can expect to achieve and rather be conservative on the rentals than not, but really run the numbers, compare them to real data points and and in so doing get a real realistic picture on that particular rental property that that that one is looking at. Sure. Thank you so much for that. Remember that if you just joined us, we are talking investments and some of the things and some of features and products that apps offers that you can take advantage of as an investor. And Miguel, I want to bring it back in terms of us talking about the investments that one can do, you know, and in terms of looking at property. And we've spoken about how how the things for them to look out for what opportunities to lie in property investments like the opportunities are always there. But for someone who is prospectively looking, what opportunities lie there that they can take advantage of? And with all these factors that we have mentioned with all of these reports that we have gone through, let's highlight some of those opportunities. Yeah, absolutely. So so everyone's talking about interest rates at the moment. Right. And interest rates. If you have an existing portfolio, you see your home loan payments increase on a monthly basis, and that's absolutely eroding the net margin between your rentals you're earning and the costs for having that property. Right. Of course, electricity is increasing. So you should ideally have a prepaid meter for your tenants. But about other costs, which you which you which you can't pass on to your tenants necessarily rates and taxes and other costs. That is also increasing. So definitely investors should be looking and managing and managing their costs. As as they grow, they should really look at the numbers conservatively, as I mentioned earlier on for investors who have already have two properties looking to to purchase their third or fourth property. Apps offers its future rental income, which takes if the expected rental income for that property that you're purchasing and adds up to the investors affordability. So that's how we help our investors to grow, but really grow in the right way and grow with confidence and and and and ensure that you have that sustainability to ensure that you still got a solid portfolio for the coming years. Sure. No, definitely growing the right way and making sure that the portfolio is solid. Keep those comments coming through on Facebook as we engage on tonight's topic. I'm just going to take a quick comment from from Facebook. Donald Sejoka says I find today's topic so educating when it comes to the investors market, and I just want to put put this question to you. Then as we round up our conversation to say, what are those? What are your final thoughts on this in terms of advice, you know, for different categories of players who are already in this space, who are looking to come into this space and people who even want to pivot to their portfolio they've had. They've had these houses for years, they've had these properties or also for years and would like to now really pivot their portfolio to either gain more income or to sell some of them and to just, you know, move it and make it a bit dynamic. What advice do you have for these categories of players? That's fantastic. So property investments often referred to as a side hustle. And if one has a single property on the property on the side, which which which renting out, that's great. And I would call that a nice hobby to have and it will give you some benefit in the future. But if you're looking at seriously building a rental portfolio from property number one, treated as a business, take it seriously, do the research, get get get upskilled, get the knowledge, pull this put together a network of other investors around you that you can soundboard ideas with your challenges and and really treat it as a business. And if you do that, you'll definitely be be building a sustainable part of the future. Those investors that find themselves stuck at the moment in disaster, they're not sure if the market's improving, they're not sure what the impact of interest rates is going to be. I think if you find yourself there, get get skilled up, get knowledgeable, understand how to deal with what happens and what the impact will be with an extra half percent, one percent and even two percent in your property portfolio. It's scary, but rather be prepared for that. And if it comes, if it comes to be, you're prepared. If it doesn't come to be, well, then you're overprepared and that's never a bad thing. But really upskill your knowledge, get the right tools, get the right support around you. Sure. Now, thank you so much for that, Miguel. Really, really appreciate you taking our time once again to talk to us and really appreciate it and have a great night. Thanks so much. Look forward to it. Thank you. We are telling up the comments and we'll be telling you who is the winner of tonight's 500 grand cash prize. So if you haven't been commenting, this is the right time to now comment and make sure that you are engaging with us. You know, reply to some of those comments, mention friends and family who you think would would would benefit from hearing such information tonight. So without wasting any more time, ladies and gentlemen, drum roll, please, you know how we do a drum roll piece of give me that drum roll. And as I announced tonight's winner tonight's winner of the 500 grand cash prize is Kuto Ramosale. Kuto, well done. And thank you so much for interacting and engaging with us on the comment section until the next time. We sit right here for an inside packed show, 7 p.m. every weekday. Don't forget to share, subscribe to all our social media platforms. Thank you so much for joining us for another private property podcast. My name is Dumi. Have a good night.