The cheapest and most expensive South African cities to rent in

 ·29 Jan 2019

Jobs website, Adzuna, has released a new report looking at the cost of renting in South Africa.

The report is based on a comparison of more than 140,000 online job listings and the average rental prices in cities across the country.

According to the research, employees can generally expect to spend about 20-26% of their monthly income on rent.

In a recent report, PayProp said there is a widely accepted unwritten rule that a tenant shouldn’t pay more than 30% of their net income for rent, with the lowest risk candidates spending only 24% of their income on rent – 20% less than the average tenant.

The Adzuna study assumes that the cost of monthly rent is carried by a single person occupying a 1-bedroom home within city centres of South Africa’s 15 biggest towns and cities.

Most affordable South African cities to rent in

When compared with the average monthly salaries and the average rental prices, the most affordable cities to rent in South Africa are:

  • Polokwane – 11% of monthly income spent on rent
  • Bloemfontein – 16% of monthly income spent on rent
  • Port Elizabeth – 17% of monthly income spent on rent
  • Johannesburg – 18% of monthly income spent on rent
  • East London – 19% of monthly income spent on rent

According to the study, cities such as Pretoria, Durban, Paarl, Pietermaritzburg and George came in as the ‘best value cities for renters’, with employees in these areas typically paying less than 22% of their wages towards rent.

At the other end of the spectrum, Capetonians can expect to put a whopping 38% of their pay cheques towards their rent while those in Sandton spend at least 37% of their wages on their monthly rent.

“It is interesting to note that Johannesburg comes up as one of the most affordable cities for renting employees,” said country manager for Adzuna SA, Jesse Green.

“The results we see here could be because employment in Johannesburg offers much higher salaries when compared with job opportunities in cities such as Bloemfontein, for example.”

Green added that although some employees are paid higher monthly salaries, they actually have a lot less to show for it since they have to deal with high costs of living and local property premiums.

“Alternative locations, like East London, offer a much more attractive deal that can help renters save money,” he said.

“The extra cash they save on rental prices can be used to save up for a deposit to buy a home of their own.”


Read: Here’s how much of your income you should be spending on rent each month

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