Interest rates have now probably bottomed out and there is renewed pressure
on banks to increase lending rates, including home loan rates, says Noel
Young, divisional director for NBS Bank Loans.
Young, divisional director for NBS Bank Loans.
Speaking at a meeting of the Independent on Saturday/NBS Bank Investors
Club in Durban, he predicted that you can be fairly confident, however,
that interest rates will not soar again to the 24 percent of 1998.
He says it is also now time to be looking at property as an investment.
Interest rates are low and you can lock in fixed rates for at least a year
and there is plenty of excess housing stock with all the banks still
sitting on what, at their peak, were record levels of repossessed homes. It
costs about 30 percent more on average to build a home than to buy an
existing home.
Young says the repossessions and defaults on home loan payments are now
slowing down with the reduced interest rates so the buyer`s market is
likely to start disappearing soon.