Christmas holidays can present quite a challenge for those managing a mortgage, as well as those looking to enter the real estate property market in the new year.

It is important to ensure excess Christmas spending did not affect the ability of people to meet loan repayments. If you stick to your budget for food, beverages, presents and travel costs over the festive season you will ultimately reduce the potential for more personal debt and save money during what is often the most expensive time of year. Not only that, if you have a mortgage you can contribute leftover savings from the Christmas budget into your home loan, which will save time and money off your loan and can help you cope with further interest rate rises.

Of course avoiding debt and maintaining a good credit history is important at all times for all borrowers, both potential and existing.

When applying for a loan lenders will take into account your credit history and assess your ability to budget and manage repayments.

Avoid silly season spending with some of these tips:

Create a financial buffer throughout the year in preparation for the summer holidays. By repaying your mortgage above the required amount you will have more funds at your disposal, if need be.

Revisit your purchases from the last year and make a list of things that were not consumed, were left over or unused.

Then, create a well thought out detailed shopping list before you arrive at the shopping centre, to save you time and money spent on unnecessary items.

Plan for the year ahead and budget for your next summer holiday spending.

Organise your repayment strategy and increase your contributions when you can. Start preparing your new year budget and, based on this year’s festivities, decide what you can cut back on for next year.

Simply stop and think. Sometimes a minute of consideration is enough to prevent impulse buys.

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Unit blocks an other strata-titled properties could collect, manage and recycle water on site to take pressure off mains water – and potentially sell the oversupply to neighbors, a University study suggests.

Individual unit owners could communally own their water and wastewater supply infrastructure in order to service their water needs. Water shortages during the recent drought have renewed concerns about the sustainability of urban water management, but with local systems owned communally it would take the pressure off the government-owned systems and save considerable power that is currently consumed pumping water over large distances.

Such decentralisation of water management could signify that local water is sufficient to service the occupants of the scheme and provide irrigation for the grounds of a development. It could also allow for on-selling any excess water to third parties to help pay for a system’s operational costs.

Redevelopments of inner-city sites in areas with high rainfall were strong candidates for the systems, so there could be an increase in housing without putting pressure on existing water infrastructure.

This can be done by installing communal rainwater tanks and greywater or blackwater treatment and recycling systems. In this environment, wastewater treatment plants can be connected to sewer mains to guarantee the safe discharge of untreated water.

The key findings of the study were that body corporates should retain ownership of all infrastructure and employ a resident or facility manager to monitor an maintain the system.

Properties with 50 to 250 or more units should have a water technology company operate their facility and the lots should be individually metered to provide water-saving incentives, the report said.

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