If you live in Cape Town, you could be paying up to 38% of your salary on rent

The biggest cost of living is rent and if you live in South Africa, you could be spending up to one eight of your wages on rent. If you are lucky enough to live in some areas, you could be spending as much as 40%!

After analysing the latest job listings and rental data, Adzuna found Polokwane to be the most affordable town for working renters.  The online job aggregator compared average salaries of more than 100,000 online job listings with average rental prices in cities across South Africa to compile a list of the most and least affordable places for renters to live.

According to the research, employees can generally expect to spend about 20%-26% of their monthly income on rent, which is on par with the PayProp Rental Index weighted national average of 24%. The 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 country manager for Adzuna SA, Jesse Green, there are a few surprises among the results. He explains: “It is interesting to note that Johannesburg comes up as one of the most affordable cities for renting employees. 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.”

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. “Sandton is a difficult one to interpret, because most employees in Sandton apparently do not live there, with the majority commuting daily to the area,” said Green.

It comes as no surprise to find that many employees who work within the higher-priced city centres, such as Sandton, choose to reside in more affordable areas, outside of the city centres, to keep rent down to a minimum.

Most expensive cities in SA to rent in

After comparing monthly rental prices and average salaries across South Africa’s major cities, the results of the study clearly pointed out which cities in SA were the most expensive for tenants. These include:

• Cape Town – 38% of monthly income spent on rent
• Vanderbijlpark – 38% of monthly income spent on rent
• Sandton – 37% of monthly income spent on rent
• Richards Bay – 26% of monthly income spent on rent

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

According to the latest online job listing, which shows that the average disposable salary in South Africa is R30,396 in nominal terms, the average earner looking to rent should be budgeting around R7,300 per month.

Most and least expensive provinces to rent in

While the prices may vary from one city to another, Adzuna also compared median rental prices across all 9 of South Africa’s provinces. As one can see from the results, Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and Mpumalanga came in as the three most expensive provinces to rent in while North West, Free State, and the Northern Cape came in as the most affordable provinces for working renters.

Provided by Adzuna