What a R6,000 per month apartment looks like in Joburg vs Cape Town, Pretoria and Gqeberha

With interest rates continuing to hike upward, renting a one-bedroom apartment has become more attractive to South Africans.

According to Makhosini Ndlovu, the head of FNB Commercial Property Finance, there is a healthy demand for rental properties in South Africa. Ndlovu said that many landlords are currently holding rentals or decreasing them due to tenant income pressure.

In late November, PayProp's latest quarterly Rental Index revealed that average national rent increased from R7,800 in Q3 2021 to R8,023 in Q3 2022. This made Q3 the first quarter in which this figure broke through the R8,000 mark.

PayProp noted that despite this, tenants are becoming more reliable at paying their rent as tenant arrears improved steadily across the nation.

Johette Smuts, the head of data analytics at PayProp, said that while rising interest rates may increase the demand for rentals, they also slow down economic growth, which puts further pressure on tenants' finances and ultimately negatively impacts their ability to afford higher rental price increases.

BusinessTech looked at what R6,000 gets in South Africa:

Johannesburg

1 Bedroom Apartment / Flat to Rent in Melville - R6,100