Residential property market caps

Speaking during a BHC workshop held in Gaborone this week, real estate asset manager at Stanlib, Sethebe Manake noted that the home ownership market is now more flexible for people to invest in as interest rates have gone down. Also, she said banks are now making mortgages more attractive as they shift towards secured lending. “This is the right time to buy property because the home ownership market is now beginning to rebase as the mortgages are more affordable and with the prime rate having dropped from 16.5% to 9 nine in the past five years,” Sethebe said.

In a period of sluggish economic and personal income growth, commercial banks have become more risk averse preferring to advance more of asset-backed loans such as mortgages and vehicle finance instead of unsecured personal loans.