PROPERTY NEWS - While you reach for your wine glass for the third time in the last 60 seconds, your partner across the table coughs purposelessly to try and fill the silence of one awkward dinner party.
To help you avoid future uncomfortable silences, RE/MAX of Southern Africa has compiled some fascinating dinner conversation trivia that you might like to mention at your next formal sit-down:
Most expensive home ever sold
One of the most expensive recorded real estate sales in South Africa was priced at a whopping R290-million. Bought by a German couple in 2016, the home was situated in Bantry Bay overlooking the Cape's iconic Atlantic Seaboard. To ensure future privacy, the sale of the home included two adjacent vacant plots so that nobody could build anything to obstruct their views. Talk about securing your investment.
State owns less than 20% of all registered land
As would be expected in a capitalist society, 82% (93 956 125 hectares) of the total 114 223 273 hectares of land is owned by private landowners. The rest falls under state ownership.
Foreigners own just 2% of South African farmland
South Africans own 92% of total farm and agricultural holdings while foreign nationals own just 2%. In terms of property, of the 726 966 sectional title unit owners in the country, 567 148 (78%) are South African nationals while 132 672 (18%) are foreign nationals. According to the Land Audit Report, 4% falls under the category of 'other'.
Roughly 20% of South Africans live in informal housing
According to the General Household Survey of 2017 compiled by StatsSA, 79,4% of households in metropolitan areas live in formal dwellings, followed by 18,0% in informal dwellings, and 1,3% in traditional dwellings. Informal dwellings were most common in Buffalo City (26,0%), Johannesburg (21,1%) and Ekurhuleni (20,3%) and least common in Nelson Mandela Bay (6,6%). Traditional dwellings were most common in Eastern Cape (22,3%) and KwaZulu-Natal (14,4%). Though these percentages might seem low, the numbers still translate into millions of South Africans living outside of the formal housing sector.
Companies own half of all land in Limpopo
According to the Land Audit Report of November 2017, 50% of the 7 758 940 hectares of registered land in Limpopo is owned by companies, with individuals owning a mere 22% in comparison. This, however, is not the case for the rest of the country. Of the 93 956 125 hectares of all registered land in South Africa that falls under private ownership, individuals own 39%, followed by trusts at 31%, companies at 25%, CBOs at 4%, and co-ownership at just 1%.
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