PROPERTY DEVALUATION DUE TO FOREIGNERS’ EXCLUSION

MBABANE – The constitutional provision stipulating that non-Swati citizens cannot have land registered under their names, has allegedly led to a decline in the value of property.

This claim was made by a number of speakers during the interaction with the business community by Registrar of Deeds Thabiso Masina, which had been convened by the Federation of the Swaziland Employers and Chamber of Commerce at Emafini yesterday.

The business community submitted that as a result of implementation of Section 214 of the Constitution, the value of properties had dropped because non-Swati citizens were becoming less interested in acquiring either land or property because they could no longer have their acquisitions registered under their names by the Deeds Office since April 2017.

“Implementation of this provision has far reaching consequences apart from the devaluing properties. There is a high risk of investors shunning the kingdom because of the stumbling blocks being imposed which include failure by foreigners to have land registered under their names by the Deeds Office,” submitted Sean Steward.

SWAKI’s Paul Friedlander explained that there was an urgent need to rethink application of this certain provision of the law in order to avoid a situation where it would have serious negative effects on the economic growth of the Kingdom of Eswatini.
“We need to look at this law at a broader perspective and come up with a long lasting solution,” recommended Friedlander.

Masina acknowledged that even though application of the legislation might have led to the decline in the value of property, there was also a benefit for ordinary citizen which includes being able to procure property in title deed land. He said for every decision there would always be pros and cons but what remained vitally important would be to strike a balance.

He advised non-Swati citizens who may be interested in occupying land to consider leaseholds. He explained that foreigners were at liberty to have leases registered under their names if they were more than 10 years.

The registrar said testament to the notion that more emaSwati were now able to procure land and property, there had not been a significant decline in the number of properties that were transferred since the policy started being implemented.

Nearly 600 properties exchanged hands in the last six months according to 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.

“We need to find a lasting solution that will be mutually beneficial. Any changes that will be made, they will be, should not benefit only a section of the population,” said Masina.
The registrar hinted that maybe there ought to be a subordinate legalisation to address the issues raised by the business community.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: