1811 Spyglass Village

I feel like our house has too much space and loren chose a smallish house. I just had two women over who can help out with a few things I wanted to do (bookshelves etc.) and they had good suggestions on how to rearrange my initial thoughts on furniture layout etc. I had really wanted to start reducing and deaccumulating but I think it may be hard here!

The shopping is great, esp. after 2+ years of being pent up in Taipei with not much to buy, there are just malls after malls of very interesting things. The house has space of an informal living room, a formal one then also an outdoor one. A formal dining and an informal dining and then even a place for a bigger TV room and then a smaller TV room. But somehow no main rooms that would make a great library or study, those rooms are tiny.

The garden is lovely, Aunt Edna, only yours is a nicer garden! the weather is very conducive for growing and I hope to try my hand at more of these plants. The neighbours have these big bushes of lavender that I am tempted to crop for lavender cookies and cakes or drying them, just a breeze and whiff of air smells so nice.

The landlord has agreed for us to convert all the fountains to planting areas. We really are not big fountain people. The house is only about 3.5 years old, in a newer area of Dainfern and I am also looking into maybe buying the place.

The pro's - Dainfern has great security, a golf course, limited housing so likely a shortage if the economy keeps growing.

The con's or uncertainties.... mortgage rates here are 12% and the yield on the house is only 8% which points to renting instead of buying. If we bought we'd pay cash and the opportunity cost of this place vs. the markets is evenish. Also we would stay only between 2-4 years so not sure if we can sell when we want to. For it to be a really good investment, the price will have to go up and the rand is another issue.... its down 20% against the US$ last year and seems to be correlated to gold (is gold over or undervalued?)

Anyway... will speak to a few agents and economists and run some numbers, in the meantime anyone with interest in sharing a property investment in SA... send me an email! :)