IEASA National - News

Property freesheets mooted as education tool   Article Date :27 Oct 2005 Launch of weekly freesheet property publications in townships One of the surest ways to advance and promote the understanding of home-ownership in formerly disadvantaged areas was through the launching of weekly freesheet property publications in townships. These could be financed in a small way by property advertising generated by local agents, but would require to be substantially underwritten by stakeholders benefiting from future township buyers, such as banks, mortgage originators, larger estate agencies and groups and publishers. The suggestion comes from Shaun Minnie, CEO of property publisher, PA Publications, who in a Johannesburg interview this week, aired serious concern at the low levels of homeownership being promoted among township folk. Noting that property ownership was the only sure way of creating wealth among the working classes, Minnie believed it time for a co-ordinated rather than the current fragmented approach, which he said because of the vastness of numbers and the low levels of property knowledge had so far achieved little. He thought it a useless exercise to apportion blame for the poor results thus far, insisting instead that the best chance for success was through a highly committed national campaign and one which every signatory should pledge their ongoing commitment. He was confident of well-organised campaigns drawing good support. Minnie said PA Publications would commit to infrastructural support and financing in part providing that other major players, such as banks, mortgage originators and estate agents advertised or financed educational information abd became team players. A number of developers were already committed to educational programmes and these could possibly be recruited He would also like to see the Estate Agency Affairs Board with its access to language resources use such vehicles to educate township people on the role of estate agents and the need to only deal with licensed agents. The potentially powerful role of the township estate agent in the home ownership process had been largely underplayed and this segment of the industry, if harnessed and actively policed by the EAAB, could spearhead the process. But serious commitment by the statutory body was vital. Minnie envisages distribution points of property newspapers at shopping and main activity centres and is even optimistic of their being circulated among schools with the purpose of teaching the benefits of ownership. From a sponsoring benefit, Minnie says that banks, apart from promoting business, would be reducing the future risk of default of homeloans through the better understanding of borrowers while mortgage originators and agents would be creating new purchasing channels through company branding. Submitted: 21 Oct 2005 CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO THE MAIN NEWS PAGE