NEARLY 600 PROPERTY TRANSFERS SINCE JAN

 MBABANE – Nearly 600 properties exchanged hands in the last six months. This has been disclosed in information sourced from the Registry of Deeds for the last quarter of the financial year, January to April 2018 and the first quarter of April to June 2018.

Registrar of Deeds Thabiso Masina reported that the exact number of deeds of transfer during the period under review was 556. A deed of transfer is an instrument by which ownership of registered property like land is conveyed from its seller to its buyer.

Masina stated that the deeds of transfer were closely followed by mortgage bonds which were at 504 in the last six months.

Compensation

It has to be mentioned that when a person finances the purchase with a mortgage, the lender retains ownership of the mortgage. In a default situation; bondholders have a claim to the underlying property and could sell it off to compensate for the default.

The registry further reported that 16 Crown Grants were recorded in the period between January and April 30, 2018. Simply put, this is a title to land which government has granted to a person (s), company(s), statutory body or an incorporated association.  However, it was not ascertained whether the grant was made for a cash consideration or on the completion of certain developments that that will benefit the State or a mixture of both.

In terms of stamp duty, it was reported that E9.9 million was generated while fees of office amounted to E42 968. From search fees E23 033 was pumped into government coffers.

The high stamp duty can be attributed to the processed number of high value transactions wherein, for instance in one, the purchase price was in excess of E170 million. In other bonds, processed during the period under review, the value was anything between E20 million and E60 million.

The transaction which cost E170 million was the acquisition of 50 per cent shares of the Gables (Pty) Ltd by Public Service Pensions Fund (PSPF), a public organisation established in 1993 for the management and administration of pensions for government (public sector) employees as previously confirmed by PSPF Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Cleopas Dlamini.

Approved
Recently, the Swaziland Competition Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Thabisile Langa approved acquisition of Portion 2 of Farm No. 505 by Eagles Nest (Pty) Ltd from Dr Vincent Mhlanga.

The underdeveloped farm is situated in the Manzini District.
Langa mentioned that when analysing the transaction, the commission considered the products of both parties and concluded that the relevant market was commercial land for farming. 

“The market shares in the relevant market and market concentration will not be significantly altered as a result of the transaction.  Countervailing power and barriers to entry will also not be affected post acquisition.

The Commission concluded that post-acquisition, the transaction is not likely to cause substantial lessening or prevention of competition in the market and as such approved the acquisition without conditions,” added Langa.

Another report from the Deeds Registry from January to September 2017 showed that a total of 742 Deeds of Transfers were registered. This was a drop by 43 from 785 recorded in 2016 before the office 

Government issued a circular which mandated the deeds office to stop accepting transactions purporting to transfer land to private non-citizens which was based on Section 214 of the Constitution promulgated in 2005.

The circular also stipulated that emSwati companies’ majority owned by non-citizens and trustees for the time being who were non-emSwati would no longer have their applications processed by the deeds office unless the Land Control Board certificate explicitly states how the transaction promotes or was connected to a described new or existing business undertaking of which land would be a significant factor or base.     

However, it should be mentioned that non-emSwati property owners who acquired land prior to the pronouncement that only Emaswati could own land in the country would not have their transactions reversed.

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