It's the end of our financial year

The end of February marks the end of our financial year and the 1st March 2011 is Mc Naught and Company's 27th birthday - next week we enter our 28th year. Wow! Well done all.

Enjoying a drink at the office are staff Val and Tracey-Lee with partners Mark and Dave and Re/Max Jaco and Gail.

A Major Boost for the Property Market

At last!

A change to the transfer duty payable on purchases of new property!

All sales of immovable property where no VAT is payable will be subject to transfer duty at the following rates:

R0 to R600,000.00           -    No transfer duty payable

R600,000.00 to R1 mill     -    Transfer duty calculated at 3%

R1 000 001 to R1.5 mill    -    Transfer duty calculated at 5%

Above R1.5 mill                -    Transfer duty calculated at 8%

Therefore a buyer purchasing a property for R1 million today will save R13,000.00 compared to if they had purchased the property before this change! The duty for purchases by Companies, Close Corporations and Trusts has also been reduced to equate to that of natural persons. You can download your full costs table here.

Mc Naught and Company are completely up to speed on the new budget and can advise you on how these changes will affect you. Contact us now!

Consumer Protection Seminars 9 and 16 March

Book Now for our new Consumer Protection Act Seminar to help you get ready for the implementation of the Act on the 1st April 2010.

The Seminar is a hands-on Seminar dealing with your particular Real Estate Sales and Mandate documents to ensure compliance in time for the implementation of the Act.

There will be two morning seminars, one on Wed 9th March and the other a week later on Wed 16th March. Those participating are invited to email their sales and mandate documents to Dave who will present the Seminar with partner Mark and we will work on updates to the documents which will be discussed in further detail at the Seminar.

dave@maclaw.co.za - email address for your documents.

Bookings for either Seminar can be made by phone on 031-9037307 or fax 031-903-6150 or email to mcnaughtco@hotmail.com The cost is R50 per delegate which includes Welcome coffee/cake and lunch at 1pm.

You can download the Booking Form by clicking on the link here.

NOT TO BE MISSED.

February Newsletter published

Transfer and Bond costs table effective 23 Feb 2011

We have updated the Transfer and Bond Costs table to take account of the reduction in Transfer Duty effective 23rd February 2011. Click on the link here to get your own copy of the new table.

Having a great time

Mc Naught and Co partners Mark and Dave with Trainee Attorney Patrick (Toti office)at our Flying Start Cocktail function at the Bluff office last night.

 Danielle, Ann, Trish and Rob of Seeff Bluff

Dale of Express Pest Control puts up a brave face after his injury

  Estelle, Ronel, Amanda and Kevin from Acutts Bluff

Bobby, Llewellyn and Pat

More fun at the More fun at the Bluff Office party!! Thanks to BeanBagBohemia for the superb catering at our "Flying Start Cocktails" function to kick off 2011 with a bang and welcome Mark who joins Dave as a partner at Mc Naught and Company.



Barry and Hettie Nel (Re\Max Bluff)

Ashvir and Jacqui from Betterbond together with Bobby

Tracey from Mc Naught and Company together with Jacqui from Betterbond

Tracey-lee, Sharon and Val



Llewellyn and Val (Bluff bonds)



It's a party

The crazy bunch from Mc Naught and Co - Molly, Val, Bobby, Patrick, Dave, Sharon, Mark and Tracey-Lee

Ronel and Estelle of Acutts Bluff with Llewellyn

Danielle, Trish and Rob of Seeff Bluff

Lorraine and Dee of Eagle Estates with Dave's Mom Molly (centre)

It was the Bluff office party and an opportunity for staff to socialise and meet with some of our "old" friends and associates... it's been a while since we have had a party at the Bluff, preferring our new Toti offices for this purpose. But Bluff is our main office so it was great to see our local friends.

In the top photo are our staff complement Molly, Val, Bobby, Patrick, myself (Dave), Sharon, Mark and Tracey-Lee. We are joined (second photo) by Ronel, Estelle and Llewellyn, and 3rd photo by Rob and his girls from Seeff. In the 4th photo Lorraine and Dee from Eagle Estates join Dave's Mom Molly who works part-time at the Bluff office since she retired from her full-time job there several years ago.

It's training time

There's never a bad time to improve on your skills, particularly in the competitive property market. And it's time for a re-run of one of our more popular seminars - writing a binding contract that will hold water when buyers or sellers want to wriggle out of a signed deal.

Often due to haste or inexperience there are loopholes in the written contract and this Seminar will help hone your skills writing clauses that are binding and will stand the test of scrutiny if the cancellation of a sale goes to court.

January and February are good training months so that you can kick off the New year with a Flying Start and better contract skills.

Bookings for the one-off seminar are now open and you can phone/fax or email your booking to Lynn on 031-9037307 tel, 031-903 6150 fax or mcnaughtco@hotmail.com 

The cost is R50 per delegate and this includes tea/coffee/cake at registration and lunch and drinks after the Seminar. Date/time and Venue - Wed 16 Feb 11am - 1pm at Mc Naught and Company Amanzimtoti offices, 313 Kingsway.

Sprucing up the Bluff Office

It's our Bluff Office party on Wednesday - can you believe it will be 27 years in business on the 1st March and then into our 28th year!! So I'm not growing plants in my car, but "sprucing" up the Atrium at the office with some new leafy plants. We've done a bit of painting as well and hung some new pictures.. notably the awesome World Cup Stadium photo in the signing office.

If you havn't RSVP'd for the event, click on this link here and let us know you are coming or drop us an email to mark@maclaw.co.za . Dave

Commission Split Calculator

Thanks to John Wheble from Aida Winkelspruit we are able to share this quick commission split calculator with everyone. All you have to do is click on the link here or on or sideblog and you will be able to Download the Excel Spreadsheet directly to your computer.

The handy Spreadsheet put together by John enables you to quickly calculate the Agents' commission on a sale, any Network listing share, Listing agent/selling agent/office shares, Vat on each share or if a fixed amount of commission has been agreed, the Vatable output Vat etc on such a deal.

Thanks John, I am sure all those in the property market will be delighted to have this handy tool.

Transfer of properties from cc

The tax exemption deadline for transferring properties registered in the name of a close corporation, company or trust to the members of the entity has been extended to this December 2011.

The benefit of transferring a property to the member is that the transfer would be free of transfer duty, capital gains tax, secondary tax on companies and income tax in terms of Para 51 of the 8th Schedule of the Income Tax Act following a recent amendment to the Income Tax Act and subject to the deadline mentioned above.

An example is a property owned by a cc which is being sold for R900 000,00. If the property was to be sold out of the cc, the cc would make a profit, which profits are taxed as well as the capital gain - the difference between the selling price and the cost price. In the example our office is handling this tax amounts to R137 454,00.

If the exemption is used and the property is first transferred to the members and then sold (transfer can be done simultaneously) the tax payabe is R6256 - a considerable difference.

So if you own a property in a corporation, company or trust, discuss with us the best way to save taxes and take action now before the exemption falls away.



Flying Start

Welcoming Bobby (left) to the team at Mc Naught and Company Amanzimtoti office is partner Dave Mc Naught (right). Bobby is off to a flying start in 2011 and is already out and about meeting clients and associates of the firm.  As a former estate agent, Bobby has a good working knowledge of the property industry and the hurdles faced in getting a property from listing to sold and registered... FAST with Mc Naught and Co! 

Spreading the Word!

Mc Naught and Company have started the year with a bang and added a dynamic new member to our team of professionals.

Bobby Bodenstein

Bobby Bodenstein joins us in the capacity of client liaison, tasked with spreading word of our great service all down the South Coast!

We are all looking forward to 2011 and to reaching even greater heights than we did in 2010!

Office on a Christmas note

 

Dave and Mark having fun at the Toti Christmas Party

 

The end of a better year for Agents and Mc Naught and Co.



Brad sang us some songs



Ian and Patrick ran the Bar



Kate-Lynn celebrated her 22 birthday at the party




Dave's son Mark (left) joined sister Kate-Lynn helping out. Dane, Ronel and Llewellyn say cheers



Patrick and Mark talk to local Agents



Mc Naught and Co Staff take time out, including Dave's mom (right) with Mark's Fiance Lisa and Val, Tracey and Sharon



Mc Naught and Co and everyone in the property industry saw a better year with the World Cup football keeping optimism in the market on a high and falling interest rates boosting sales and bond registrations. 

Thanks to all for making this a great year and here's to an even better 2011. Seasons Greetings and may your Christmas with family be joyous.



Chinese property projects inspire

Property developers in Sanya, China, are capturing the imagination of celebrities and stars with the futuristic Phoenix development on an island linking the city with the ocean terminal.

Dave viewed the development last week while accompanying his partner on a Specavers South Africa conference held in the south China sea. The creativity and energy of the Chinese is amazing ... developers in South Africa should take note with work on the buildings also carrying on into the night.