A penthouse in the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town sold for R45 million. The low interest rate seemed to have little impact on the luxury  housing market, but this seems to be changing.

There has also been in increase in foreign buyers looking for and     buying property in SA. The March Lightstone Residential Property Index shows that annual     house price inflation was 4.0% at the end of February 2021     signifying a positive increase from the previous month.*

Luxury homes are back in demand in South Africa, according to Megan Ladbrook, general manager of Frankie Bells Real Estate, which specialises in luxury real estate. The agency defines luxury homes as those priced from R3 million upwards. They are seeing an increased demand in the Northern suburbs of Gauteng,

southern suburbs of Cape Town and in coastal towns such as Ballito, Knysna and Plettenberg Bay.

"While the low repo rate has driven demand amongst first-time home buyers and buyers in the low to mid-price range, it has had little effect on the luxury housing market," says Ladbrook. In her view, however, this is about to change.

As investor confidence begins to rise, global statistics released by Luxury Portfolio International (LPI) has indicated that between 30% and 50% of high net-worth individuals are planning to buy at least one additional luxury property in the next year – compared to just 20% last year," she adds..

At the same time, it is important to remember that the luxury market has taken a knock in terms of asking price. "We have seen homes go for as much as 30% less than the initial asking price," she says. "We are dealing with a surplus of luxury homes on the market. Key drivers for the sales of these homes include so-called semigration between provinces, the need to upscale or downscale, and emigration," she explained. In addition, a number of properties used as Airbnbs are now up for grabs. These homes are usually well kept and well located.

Among South Africa buyers, gated communities and lifestyle estates remain in high demand. In addition, those with extra money and looking to take advantage of the low interest rates are now investing in holiday homes.

*Foreign buyers*

According to Samuel Seeff, chair of the Seeff Property Group, it has seen increased activity from foreign buyers at the high-end price levels. One such example is the sale of a R45 million penthouse in Cape Town's Waterfront area to a German buyer.

The group also recently sold a R36 million property in Fresnaye, Cape Town to a buyer from the United Arab Emirates and two sales of more than R20 million each in Constantia Upper to buyers from Zimbabwe and Malawi respectively.

"Overall, sales to foreign buyers across Cape Town's Atlantic Seaboard and City Bowl are 36% higher compared to 2019 and is the highest in the past three years. Almost one third of all high value sales have been to foreign buyers," says Seeff.

"While the luxury areas are doing exceptionally well in the price bands to around R5 million to R8 million (R18 million on the Atlantic Seaboard), sales in the R20 million-plus sector remains well below what it was in 2017. That said, sales are taking place across the board in the high-end areas from Zimbali to Plettenberg Bay and Cape Town as well as in certain Gauteng locations."

He explains that, generally, the market remains driven by the low interest rate with the highest volume of activity still below R3 million as first-time buyers continue taking advantage, but they are also seeing buyers upgrading, or investing or relocating for a better quality of life. At the top end of the market, buyers can find great value given that prices of properties, often not seen before, are now at about 20% to 30% lower compared to 2017, according to Seeff.

The March Lightstone Residential Property Index shows that annual house price inflation was 4.0% at the end of February 2021 signifying a positive increase from the previous month. According to the index report, this optimism is evident at provincial level and the different value bands with the exception of the low-value segment (properties of less than R250 000). This is because the historically low interest rate has enabled both the participation in the higher value market for new homeowners and the ability to upgrade for low-value homeowners.

www.samigration.com

The Cape Town refugees and asylum seekers living in two large tents  in Cape Town have been given a two week deadline to leave.  

They must choose between getting three months' rent and food to help them get back on their feet, or a free ticket back to their country of origin.

Either way, the government plans to cut off the services provided  during the Covid-19 hard lockdown. The group of asylum seekers and refugees living in two tents in Cape Town since the lockdown started have been given an ultimatum - leave or face deportation. On Monday Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said there are only two options left after a lengthy stand off:

Find somewhere else to live and accept an offer from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to cover three months' rent and food while settling back in, or; 

Accept a free ticket to their country of origin paid for by the UN International Organisation for Migration.

Either way, all of the services provided for them at the marquees at Paint City in Bellville and opposite a cemetery in Wingfield, will be removed two weeks from 14 April.  "We agree it might turn out ugly," said Motsoaledi in a media briefing on Monday. "But that's not our intention. We are painfully aware that they are going to push children and women in front."  Motsoaledi said the entire situation, which came to prominence with a sit-in at an arcade in the Cape Town CBD, and ended with removal from in- and around the Central Methodist Mission to two marquees, had been mischaracterised as the forced removal of refugees and asylum seekers.  He said they were moved because of breaches of by-laws and the Covid-19 hard lockdown Level 1 rules preventing sleeping on pavements and in crowded spaces.

He accused the group of an "ill conceived" and "orchestrated" campaign to be relocated to the French-speaking region of Quebec in Canada for better social benefits than those offered by South Africa. "The protesters deny that - but we have established it," said Motsoaledi. He said this final offer comes after extensive consultation and discussion between UN agencies, government departments, and the embassy of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where 85% of the 1 553-strong group comes from originally. He said the ultimatum comes after the City of Cape Town was set to remove all of its services from the two sites.   Motsoaledi explained that South African law does not allow for "refugee camps".

This means that the Auditor-General had taken the City of Cape Town to task for spending money not provided for in any legislation. This would be regarded as the dreaded "irregular expenditure" and neither the City, nor the Department of Home Affairs is prepared to get on the wrong side of the Auditor-General for what the AG regards as, ..tented camps for refugees", not covered in any South African law or financial processes.

Motsoaledi said the Premier of the Western Cape Alan Winde stepped in and said the provincial government would bear the responsibility for the services at the tents for only two weeks to give all of the agencies involved in the offer time to execute it.  He some of the occupants have already accepted the offer and have sent messages of thanks as they settle into the new accommodation they found when taking up the offer.

He claimed some people in the two groups clearly left for jobs every day, sleeping at the tents in the hopes that the Canada relocation demand will come through.  Of those in the group, who have applied for refugee or asylum seeker status in South Africa, 583 were rejected and decided to appeal to the Refugee Authority of SA.  A further 382 were rejected by the refugee reception offices as not qualifying as refugees. Two hundred and sixty four of the appeals have been completed, and are being reviewed, with 174 finalised.   Forty-one people have been deported, after a magistrate confirmed the deportation orders.  "The deported leaders, these 41, they include the ring leaders of this rebellion," said Motsoaledi.

Two of the three leaders of the group - Aline Bukhuru and Papi Sukhami -have already been deported and the third, JP Balous, is in custody awaiting criminal charges following a confrontation in the Cape Town Magistrate's Court. He has also exhausted all appeals regarding his status in South Africa and faces deportation. "Once the criminal proceedings are over, we shall deport him also," said Motsoaledi. "[I am] mentioning these individuals by name because they are the ones who had promised fellow protesters a pie in the sky."  Motsoaledi said millions of foreign nationals have successfully integrated into South African communities. Motsoaledi said the offer of three months' paid accommodation and food or a ticket to their country of origin was an extremely fair offer that South Africans don't even benefit from. 

He added that neither South Africa nor the UN could force any third party country to accept a refugee or asylum seeker seeking resettlement.

www.samigration.com

Bank of America Securities says Clicks was the most sought-after company by foreign investors in terms of meeting requests

The Bank of America Securities says its Sun City investor conference this month broke all previous records in terms of  investor attendance.

 Of the 376 investors that took part, 44% were from offshore  jurisdictions.Foreigners are interested in growth stocks like Clicks and Shoprite but the global shift towards value stocks in 2020 is benefiting more SA companies.

South Africa may not be top of the list for investors to put their money for the long haul, but foreigners are paying attention to several companies that have shown resilience during this Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the Bank of America Securities, which hosted its 22^nd annual Sun City conference earlier this month, there was record attendance this year from investors wanting meetings with the 63 South African corporates that participated in the investor meetings.

This year's and 2020 conferences were held virtually and almost half of the investors that attended were from offshore and some of the companies discussed during the Sun City conference were BofAS clients.

Paul Steegers, head of SA equity research at the Bank of America Shoprite had most meeting requests from investors followed by Mr Price and Naspers-Prosus. There was also a lot of interest in Woolworths, Aspen, and Bidvest.

From foreign investors, Clicks was the most sought-after company in terms of meeting requests. Shoprite, Mr Price, Naspers-Prosus, and Discovery were also in the top five companies attracting the attention of foreign investors.

John Morris, SA strategist at BofA Securities said foreign investors were attracted to growth stocks which is why Clicks which already has 75% foreign ownership was number one.

Double the interest

The participation rate by investors was double the previous record ever at Sun City," said Morris. Of the 166 foreign investors, he said 39% were from the Americas, 49% were from Europe and 12% were from Asia-Pacific. The representation of investors from the Americas was higher than usual as the virtual nature of the conference meant that many investors who had never flown out to Sun City before could now participate from the comfort of their homes. Morris said when it comes to what foreigners bought in the past two weeks, during and after the conference the biggest purchases – in terms of free float and not the Rand value – were for Royal Bafokeng Platinum, Mr Price, Vodacom, MTN, and Naspers-Prosus.

The increased interest from investors may not be surprising to some market watchers as many SA companies have performed better than initially anticipated when the virus first hit our shores. Steegers pointed out many companies' balance sheets remained very robust as their relentless focus on working capital resulted in strong cash flows which some were boosted by the number of right issues that took place in 2020.

Consumers have proven to be more resilient than initially expected to the benefit of retailers, thanks to lower interest rates and other government support measures while companies in the resources sector are reaping the benefits of higher commodity prices. For the financial companies at the conference, Steegers said it looked like the worst was behind them now.

SA benefiting from the global stock-picking shift

Morris said while foreign investors liked growth sticks like Clicks, the global shift from growth to value stocks in 2020 has also benefitted many other local companies as the SA equity market's strong point is value when one takes Naspers out of the equation.

"I think the meetings at the conference confirmed our views that South Africa is in a good place to benefit from global recovery," said Morris. BofA Securities has adjusted its global growth forecast upward. It is now expecting the US real GDP to grow by 7% this year and SA's to grow by 3.8%, growth rates that are above its initial forecasts and market consensus.

Morris said this global recovery coupled with rising bond yields was expected to support investments into emerging markets and value stocks. It would also help keep metal prices high for longer which is great news for SA given the mining sector's contribution to the economy.

Restructuring the economy could attract more investors

However, many foreign investors looking to pile up on emerging market stocks are still underweight in South Africa. Morris said the problem remains the structural concerns that affect SA's ability to grow beyond 2% to 3%.

The fiscal drag caused by state-owned companies that frequently need a capital injection from the government, the unreliable electricity supply, and other fiscal headaches like the growing budget deficit and expectations that National Treasury will make some concessions on the public wage bill.

Morris said the problem was that SA was not pursuing structural reforms that could suddenly push its GDP growth from the current potential 2% something worth noticing like 4% to 5% growth.

"The problem for South Africa is we can't say we are reforming. If we reform, the foreigners will come here like there's no tomorrow because we are cheap if you look at our [price earnings ratios]. Investors don't see South Africa for the long haul outside of the growth names that cando well regardless," said Morris.

www.samigration.com

The Supreme Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by the minister of home affairs, who was ordered by the high court in Pretoria last year to grant citizenship to two brothers born in SA of foreign parents in the 1990s.

Brothers Joseph Emmanuel Jose and Jonathan Diabaka are entitled to South African citizenship even though their parents are Angolan.

This follows a ruling of the Supreme Court of Appeal on Tuesday, when it dismissed, with a punitive cost order, an application by the home affairs minister for leave to appeal against a court order that he grant citizenship to the two men, who were born in SA of foreign parents.

Joseph and Jonathan, born in SA in February 1996 and August 1997 respectively, have lived in the country their entire lives. Their parents are Angolan citizens who fled that country in 1995 and sought asylum in SA. The parents and children were granted refugee status in 1997.

This endured until January 2014 when the department informed the family that their refugee status had been withdrawn. When the status was withdrawn, Jose was 17 and Jonathan 16.

The department referred them to the Angolan embassy, where they were advised that to remain lawfully in SA, they had to apply for Angolan passports and failure to do that would result in “repatriation”.

The brothers have never been to Angola, they have no family there, know little about Angola, and neither speak any Portuguese.

When they experienced difficulties in applying for South African IDs, they approached Lawyers for Human Rights who advised them that they were eligible to apply for citizenship.

However, their efforts were not successful and they then applied to the high court in Pretoria to direct the department to grant them South African citizenship.

The court ordered the department to grant them citizenship in March last year.

Dissatisfied with this order, the minister applied for leave to appeal to the SCA.

The high court granted leave only on the question of whether it was competent for the court to order the minister to grant, as opposed to consider, the brothers' applications for citizenship.

In the judgment passed on Wednesday, the SCA held that the brothers met the requirements for South African citizenship in terms of the Citizenship Act.

This is because they were born in SA of parents who are not South African and who have not been admitted into SA for permanent residence and that they have lived in SA from the date of birth until they became adult.

On the question of whether a court can direct the department to grant the men's application for citizenship, the SCA said while the doctrine of the separation of powers must be considered, this did not mean that there might not be cases in which a court may need to give directions to the executive.

The SCA said given that it was clear that the men met all requirements for citizenship, it would serve no purpose to send the matter to the minister to make a fresh decision.

The SCA said a recent Constitutional Court judgment passed in July, which sets a precedent, affirmed that a court may direct the department to grant citizenship to an applicant.

The appellate court said though the precedent was set after the heads of argument -setting out the basis for the minister's appeal - were filed, the department's position ought to have changed.

The court said the department was obliged to reconsider its position.

For that reason, the SCA dismissed the minister's appeal with costs on a punitive scale.

Upon application to the Minister of Home Affairs, the Minister may under terms and conditions determined by him or her allow distinguished visitors or members of his/her family to be administered and sojourn in South Africa and or waive any prescribed (regulatory) requirements for good cause and/or grant any foreigner or category of foreigners the rights of permanent residence for a specified or unspecified period when special circumstances exist justifying such a decision.

S 31(2)(b) provides that the Minister may, upon application, grant a foreigner or a category of foreigners the right of permanent residence for a specified or unspecified period, when special circumstances exist justifying such a decision. The Minister may also exclude a foreigner or a group of ‘identified’ foreigners from such dispensation and may, for good cause, withdraw such right(s) from a foreigner or a category of foreigners. S 31(2)(c) provides that the Minister may for ‘good cause’ waive any prescribed requirement or form, in respect of any such application by a foreigner for the grant of permanent residence.

There are a myriad of circumstances that may arise wherein an applicant may apply to the Minister of Home Affairs to grant certain concessions in terms of section 31(2)(b) or under 31(2)(c) under the Immigration Act (the “Act”) that may pertain either to the acquisition of permanent residence “when special circumstances exist” or “for good cause, waive any prescribed requirement or form”.

The Minister is empowered in terms of the Immigration Act to “waive” any regulatory requirement or form.  A foreigner may apply for such waiver on the basis that “good cause” exists for the granting of such waiver.

The term “good cause” has never been defined, either in terms of legislation or by the South African judiciary.  In practical terms an applicant must demonstrate that there is compelling justification for the waiving of a regulatory requirement or form, and if the Department of Home Affairs (on behalf of the Minister) determines that a violation of a constitutional right, or an irrational consequence, will arise by a refusal to grant such waiver, waivers are normally granted.

A typical scenario necessitating a waiver under section 31(2)(c) would be where a specific requirement or form is applied to the Minister to be dispensed with.

Here are a few examples of waiver applications:

• A foreigner, sojourning in South Africa, has in the past submitted police clearance certificates from his country of residence of more than 12 months since his 18^th One of those countries is Saudi Arabia.  Since his last submission to the Department of Home Affairs of his Saudi Arabian police clearance certificate he has never returned to such country.  He now intends to apply for permanent residence in South Africa and will, in terms of Immigration Regulation 23(2)(e) require a police clearance certificate from Saudi Arabia.  Since he will not be able to acquire a new Saudi Arabian police clearance certificate without, at great expense and inconvenience, returning to that country physically to obtain one, he applies for a waiver from the aforementioned regulatory requirement in relation to a Nigerian ,USA or Saudi Arabia police clearance certificate if perhaps you have not lived there for 10 to 15 years and would have difficulty to obtain same .  Such applications have been largely successful.
• A refugee sojourning in South Africa in terms of the Refugees Act wishes to apply for a critical skills work visa in terms of section 19(4) of the Immigration Act. In terms of Ahmed and Others v Minister of Home Affairs and Another [2018], ZACC 39  an asylum seeker or refugee sojourning in South Africa must first apply for a waiver from the requirements of Immigration Regulation 9, which includes the requirement that any temporary residence visa applicant must submit his or her application in person to a foreign South African mission where such applicant ordinarily resides or holds citizenship.  Once the waiver from such requirement is granted only then may the asylum seeker or refugee proceed to submit an application for a temporary residence visa application in South Africa.  These waivers must ordinarily be granted otherwise a ruling by the Constitutional Court will be violated.

A regulatory waiver application made in South Africa may take anywhere between 4 – 7 months on average to be processed and adjudicated by the Department of Home Affairs.  In order to apply for a waiver the applicant must be in possession of a valid refugee or immigration status.