NO BIDDERS FOR 13 HOUSES

MBABANE – There is no appetite for property in Mbabane as there were no bidders who showed up for the auctioning of 13 houses.

The property was being auctioned on Friday at the Mbabane Magistrate’s Court by the Municipal Council of Mbabane following that some property owners had accrued arrears on their rates payments. From the 13 properties, the most expensive was a 1 065-square metre property that was developed. It has a reserve price of E784 000. The property was set to go under the hammer tomorrow following a debt of E12 218.44 by the owner.

Argued

According to a notice of sale in execution, all the properties that were to be auctioned were argued in court since 2014. The properties are also fully developed. Meanwhile, the least expensive plot had a reserve price of E38 000 while it had rates arrears worth E6 211.16. The plot is situated at Msunduza Extension 4. When computing the value of the rates owed to the municipality, the rates that it seeks to recover are valued at E135 102. The lack of appetite by property developers in securing the 13 properties is reflective of the decline in land, residential or commercial transfers by 5.4 per cent last year.

This is also reflective of the fact that government last year enforced a provision stipulating that foreigners should not be allowed to buy land in the kingdom has cost the country thousands of Emalangeni. This could be backed by the number of property land, residential or commercial transfer that has been registered by the Deeds Registry Office in the past nine months. Estate agents, construction companies, conveyancers and property developers had earlier warned that government needs ought to reconsider the decision not to allow foreigners to buy land in the country.

The players in the property industry pointed out that effects of the intensified laws that guide the buying and selling of land to foreign nationals would have a negative effect on their businesses to the extent that they could be forced to consider downsizing if the current stance persists. A report from the Deeds Register, which has been collated in conjunction with the latest quarterly report figures, shows that from January to September, a total of 742 Deeds of Transfers were registered. This was a drop by 43 from 785 recorded in 2016 before the Deeds Registry tightened screws to enforce the legally binding clause which had been all along not adhered to fully. 

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