South African House-Prices Still Rising.

According to the latest Absa House Price Index for November, South African property prices have surged during the last year by an average rate of 35.1%. Yet Property prices in South Africa are set to continue rising.

Absa, South Africa's largest home loan lenders, anticipates a small slowdown in the rate of growth in house prices next year with growth of about 20% projected for 2005, according to senior economist, Jacques du Toit.

With supply failing to satisfy demand, property economist Erwin Rode, of Rode & Associates believes that the house price boom will continue in the foreseeable future. "One can expect this to continue for a long time because the growth rate has a momentum that is not easily reversed unless something catastrophic happens", he said.

Eastern Cape.

House prices in Eastern Cape, South Africa, have increased dramatically in the third quarter in comparison to this time last year. In fact Eastern Cape is the fastest growing province in the country.

While the property market in major cities such as Cape Town and Johannesburg have been booming. House prices in Eastern Cape have risen by 52.6% in the last year, according to senior economist, Jacques du Toit, which is in comparison to a national average price rise of 34.5%.

Port Elizabeth, parts of KwaZulu-Natal and East London are amongst some of the areas still believed to be of potential for property investment.

Santiago island, which is situated in the Cape Verde Islands, just south of the Canaries is set to become the world's new luxury tourism destination.

With its all year round warmth and sunshine, the exotic Cape Verde Islands, is set to rival the Canaries tourism trade, thanks to the new international airport of Praia, which will begin operating direct flights from Europe in March. Flight times from London, Paris or Amsterdam, for instance will only be 5.5 hours.

Overseas property specialists, Smart Investment Properties (SIP), are representing the developers of 'Samba Village', offering condominium-style apartments and townhouses to be situated on the coast, 5 miles from the new airport.

On 20th December SIP will be offering properties to investors, at approximately 20% below the Spring 2005 launch. Prices range from 58,450 Euros (approximately £40,000) for a one-bedroom apartment up to 127,450 Euros (approximately £90,00) for a three-bedroom Townhouse.

"The opening of the new airport puts Santiago on course not only to become a popular tourist hub, but also to offer imaginative British property investors an excellent financial return, and a high-quality environment for their personal enjoyment", says Johnathan Grepne, Managing Director of Sambala Developments S.A.

Over 4 million application forms to buy shares in the worlds' largest real estate investment trust (REIT) have been printed due to huge demand in Hong Kong. The REIT, which will go public on the Hong Kong exchange in one week's time, on December 16 - consists of 180 government owned properties.

Prospective investors are appealed by the fact that REIT's should offer a high dividend yield in comparison to the low rate of 0.01% paid on Hong Kong bank deposits. The Link Management Ltd, which manages the Link REIT are promising dividend yields as high as 6.85%.

The Link REIT has 950,000 square meters (roughly 2.85 million sq. ft.) of retail space and 79,000 parking spaces in Hong Kong. Link Management are to sell 1.97 billion units, however there is a chance that Link Management may opt to sell a further 216.7 million units based on future demand. Such a move would boost the IPO into $3 billion territory.

China's Property Market.

Shanghai's booming property market is to become more accessible to foreign investors as China plans to place restrictions on property loans and introduce public land tenders, as a measure to cool the country's economy.

A reduction in funding is expected to force small local developers out of the market, as they will not be able to afford the expenses needed to complete unfinished projects. Instead only the larger firms that are well capitalised will be able to afford to undertake such projects. "This is exactly what we want to see as a foreign developer", said Richard David, chief executive officer of First China Property Group, China's first non-Asian investor to secure a site in Shanghai back in September 2003.

"We now feel that we can compete head to head with local developers in a transparent market", he added. First China Property now plan to develop US$400 million of projects in Shanghai and other centres in China over the next five years.