Alarm bells for property owners in South Africa

Property owners in South Africa face an increasingly unsustainable financial burden as property, water, and electricity rates continue to rise sharply, with no signs of slowing down.

An exploration of tariffs over the last 15 years highlights the predicament property owners find themselves in and will likely continue to face in South Africa.

Stats SA noted that property rates recorded an average annual growth rate of 6.8% from 2009 to 2024 across 39 municipalities, totalling 117 price comparisons.

This means property rates have beaten inflation and more than doubled in the last 15 years, with inflation increasing by an average of 5.1% per year over the same period.

However, residents in some municipalities have been harder hit than others, although the picture is bleak for all property owners given the data aggregation.

This is due to the General Valuation Roll (GVR), which is conducted by municipalities across the country every four years.

The cities determine the values of your property on a market-related “willing seller to willing buyer”, and rates are charged at a rate-in-the-rand based on the valuations.

However, discrepancies and questionable valuations have resulted in some property owners in South Africa facing massive increases in values and, therefore, property rate hikes.

Following the latest GVR, the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) noted that hundreds of thousands of properties had been overvalued—some by as much as 70%—leading to massive jumps in rates and taxes.

What’s worse, Outa revealed that some property owners in smaller municipalities have seen increases of a whopping 2000%.

Despite these alarming property rate increases, the real price pains for property owners have been in water and electricity rates.

Stats SA added electricity tariffs recorded an average growth rate of 10.5% per year from 2009 to 2024, while water tariffs are up by an average of 10.2% per year.

What’s worse is that the increase in these essential services is on an increasing trajectory.

A five-year analysis of Stats SA’s data from 2019 to 2024 shows electricity tariffs outpaced water and property rates, growing by an average of 11.2% per year.

This is compared to an average of 5% per year of inflation.

However, a more in-depth comparison of water and electricity prices in South Africa paints a far worse picture.

Both water and electricity tariffs have increased dramatically faster than inflation over the period 1996 to 2024.

In fact, water tariffs have increased even faster than electricity tariffs, despite the electricity tariff increases receiving a lot more negative attention from the press and consumers.

Over the period 1996 to 2024, electricity tariffs increased almost five times faster than inflation and water tariffs increased almost six times faster than inflation.

Compounding the financial strain, these rising costs come at a time when South Africa’s infrastructure has suffered from years of neglect.

Service delivery has steadily worsened, with residents frequently facing water outages, electricity load shedding, and deteriorating roads.

The contrast between escalating costs and declining service quality is a source of growing frustration for property owners who feel they are paying more for less.

The trajectory of rising property rates and soaring utility costs poses a real threat to the sustainability of homeownership in South Africa.

The rapid rate hikes, driven by flawed property valuations and unchecked increases in electricity and water tariffs, have outstripped inflation by significant margins, making it increasingly difficult for property owners to keep up.

Meanwhile, the decline in infrastructure and service delivery has left many questioning whether they are getting any value for the steep increases they face year after year.

As these financial pressures mount, property owners are left in a precarious position, with little recourse in the face of soaring costs and dwindling services.

Without intervention to address the growing gap between cost and value, the outlook for property owners in South Africa appears increasingly bleak.

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