In the past few months, the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town has experienced a huge decline in available residential rental supply. The price range that our tenants with families are looking for is between R25 000 and R45 000, with the highest demand at R30 000. The rental stock has slowly declined from before COVID and availability is now at an all-time low for the last five years at least. The low stock in the rental market is a result of fewer properties going into the market for either sale or rental with less movement as Landlords/Sellers are staying put in their properties. Anecdotally this seems to be a result of the increasing cost of living, which includes the fuel hikes and the gradual increase of interest rates and even fears of global economic uncertainties and how they will impact the local markets.
Chas Everitt receives rental requests on a daily basis for long-term (12) month leases from those who have sold their property and weighing their options about repurchasing as well as those who are ‘semigrating’ to the Western Cape from other areas of South Africa. In this regard the majority of such clients are coming in from Natal, followed by Gauteng.
As the rental demand increases so has the processing of applications and we have also found that the after-effects of COVID have affected many households. The application process has to be carefully scrutinised as there has also been an increase in false or fraudulent documents attached to applications. However, with diligent and experienced credit vetting we are able to provide well qualified tenants for our property owners resulting in minimal surprises and unpleasant disruptions.
Taryn Retief
Manager
Chas Everitt Cape Town South Rentals