By Phesheya Mkhonta
A huge opportunity to own property has been afforded to emaSwati by SBC Limited, the owners of the Malkerns Square property development project.
SBC Limited Group is an investment holding company that is listed on the Eswatini Stock Exchange (ESE). The group provides financial solutions and property development for residential and retail purposes.
In its group results for the year ended 31 December 2022, the group has revealed that they will be developing 1 & 2-bedroom units for sectional title purposes.
“Complementing our existing 147 completed residential apartments and the 8 Embassy town houses will be the next development of affordable 1- and 2-bedroom units, these will be specifically designed and built for conventional straight sale under the sectional title act,” notes SBC Limited in their financial results.
Furthermore, the investment group reveals that they will also offer a ‘Rent to Own’ housing units with finance provided by the Select Group to successful applicants.
“The company is currently exploring the feasibility of offering a “Rent to Own” housing product, whereby the customer would enter a long-term rental contract for a housing unit with the ultimate ownership transferring over to the client at the date of the last rental installment being paid.”
Moreover, the company discloses how this arrangement will play out.
“The lending risk inherent in this concept is materially different from that of our current loan book offerings, with a substantial advantage in this new loan offering being that each loan is secured by an asset in the form of a Pine Acres developed property which remains under the ownership of the Group up to the point that the last “Rent to Own” loan installment is settled by the client.”
SBC Limited states that this offering will be a first in Eswatini and will provide opportunities for home ownership to a sector of the market that has traditionally not qualified, due to restrictions in traditional bank finance.
Finally, the company states that they have seen a substantial improvement in the current residential rental offering, consisting of 147 units which achieved an occupancy rate of approximately 76% as of 31 December 2022 (2021: 60%), resulting in a 26.7% increase in occupancy since the last reporting date.