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#Liveyourbestlife
December 2019
Stories from this publication
Is a smart city a healthy city3 min readWhile developers of smart cities claim that they are healthier than non-smart cities, do they really address the issue that cities – regardless of their IQ – are unhealthy? Or are they just applying a metaphorical Band-Aid?
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Are IKEA flat-pack houses viable in South Africa?3 min readPrefab housing does not have a great track record as an affordable option in South Africa. So could IKEA-style flat-pack houses work here like they are in the UK?
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Forty on L3 min readBLOK RAW’s FORTY ON L brings global travellers and savvy locals a trendy urban lifestyle at a deliberately lower price point without compromising on quality.
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Greenhill Estate3 min readThe Green Housing Company is a Gauteng-based building and property development company. They work across a spectrum of markets including domestic and commercial buildings such as off-grid shopping malls. Their speciality is building highly insulated and energy-efficient homes for both the high-end luxury property market and the affordable housing sector.
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Staycation Johannesburg3 min readRather than fight your way to a popular holiday spot this December, stay home and get to know your city better. Really, are you going to join the lemming exodus down to the coast? Or brave the crowds at OR Tambo so that you can spend hours squished up in a plane? While a holiday is a great idea, sometimes getting there and back is so stressful, you need another one once you get home.
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Invest in Property in Cyprus2 min readBuy direct from the developer and save thousands on your property investment in Cyprus (member of the European Union). Many South Africans are looking to invest in overseas properties, with most of them seeking a Plan B as well as an investment opportunity.
Read More- Count your blessings
3 min readWhile the end-of-year holiday is a great time to go hiking, biking, diving, surfing or more, it’s also a great time to kick back and just chill. And what better way is there than to line up a bunch of seriously feel-good movies, make some popcorn, open a bottle of something fizzy, and curl up on the couch surrounded by friends and family, with at least one pet snoozing gently on your lap?
Read More - The good the bad and the ugly
3 min readRestoring and developing old buildings is essential to preserving our heritage, so it’s important to go beyond minimum compliance with the regulations. There’s so much to consider when you’re developing an old building – and that’s over and above the regulatory hoops.
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2019 Legislation summary of relevant acts2 min readImportant legislation applied to estates and their management teams in 2019. Here is a summary of each legislation, its application and what you need to know and have in order to ensure compliance.
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Out in the open2 min readTake advantage of balmy summer nights by organising some fantastic outdoor events for your residents. One of the big advantages of living in South Africa is our fabulous weather, and one of the big advantages of living on an estate is the open space – so take advantage of those fabulous summer nights by organising some great outdoor events for your residents.
Read More- Private Equity Funding
3 min readAs private equity funding continues to enjoy favour among South African investors, we take a look at the traditional structure, and consider alternatives.
Read More - Sustainable cement
3 min readWith increasing consumer awareness of global warming and CO2 emissions, combined with possible future carbon taxes on various industries, it may be time to rethink concrete.
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What are the techprop and proptech start-ups to watch in 2020?4 min readDigital transformation is disrupting every industry across the world. The real estate sector is no exception, with residential and commercial markets seeing a large number of techprop and proptech start-ups each year.
Read More- Growing investments
3 min readYou have to have plants on the estate, so why not plant things that can bring in a bit of an income? Many estates have quite significant tracts of open land, some of which is used for recreation, and some of which is just there because the plan for the estate specified a certain percentage of green open space.
Read More - Should estates go plastic free
3 min readHow can residential estates contribute to reversing the preponderance of plastic waste in our surroundings, rivers and oceans? Plastic litter is possibly the most visible of the environmental issues facing us. And, unlike greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, it’s not really debatable.
Read More - Colour in Nature
4 min readBlur the lines between the great outdoors and your interior spaces by replicating nature’s colours on your walls. Here’s how.
Read More - All at sea
2 min readDanish students are living in beautiful floating container homes in Copenhagen Harbour. Can this system help us to solve our affordable housing crisis?
Read More - Security Switch
2 min readHumans or robots? It sounds like the sort of choice you’d only have to make in a sci-fi movie, but for more and more estate security managers, it’s a very real dilemma. The advances in digital technologies – including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data, automation and machine learning – have made it possible to employ a full-service security force staffed entirely by non-humans.
Read More - Zane de Decker
2 min readZane found his aptitude for property development early in his career. After graduating from UCT with a BSc in Property Studies, he pursued the complex and intriguing arena of asset management, finding that the assets he was drawn to most often were in the property sector.
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Section 12J, are you really getting it?4 min readWe have recently taken our newly launched Section 12J property fund to the investment market. I’m a property specialist, with a bit of an asset management background, so the 12J structure really appealed to me when it first caught my interest. What I’m finding is that many people we are chatting to about the tax incentive really don’t fully understand its structure and workings. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, right? Wrong!
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Grenada strikes a chord with SA investors seeking secondary citizenship2 min readCitizenship by investment in under nine months and visa-free travel to 143 countries, including the EU Schengen area, UK, China, Singapore and Hong Kong, is seeing Grenada in the Caribbean receiving increasing attention from South Africans, including those seeking an ideal holiday home with sound investment potential plus rental income from a growing tourism base.
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Why the E-2 VISA is often the best U.S. VISA2 min readMany South African clients are motivated to immigrate to the U.S. and are prepared to invest a significant sum of money, but are not prepared to wait a substantial amount of time to enter the U.S. Educating children in the U.S. is a priority, as is avoiding taxation on worldwide income and flexibility to travel in and out of the U.S.Â
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Kimpton Kawana Bay Resort A World-Class Citizenship by Investment Opportunity2 min readThere has been increased demand from High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs) in South Africa seeking secondary citizenship as a way to protect themselves and their families from the risks caused by external political and economic factors beyond their control.
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REDi Property Technology2 min readREDi was founded just a week before Christmas of 2003, the intent being, as founder Deon Basson is often heard saying, ‘to do something remarkable’. So we created a business based on our strengths and interests, which have always been property, technology and entrepreneurship.
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