SHED THE OBSESSION WITH HOUSE PRICES.

SHED THE OBSESSION WITH HOUSE PRICES A NEW measurement for living costs that starts in January next year could make South Africans shed our obsession with house prices and its delusion of wealth, says Andrew Schaefer, MD of national property managers Trafalgar. Rents and yields could become more important than price, a healthy step forward in what could be the world's fastest-growing asset class, buy to let. Stats SA is dropping home-loan interest payments from its basket of goods making up cost price inflation (CPI) and replacing it with owners' equivalent rent (OER). Together with water, electricity, other service costs and repairs, OER will make up almost 22% of CPI. This …