Nearly a quarter of SA tenants are behind on their rent, and it’s growing worse
Unsurprisingly, the difficulties are most pronounced in the lowest rental bracket and least severe in the highest bracket, of R15,000 and above
One in every four tenants in SA does not fulfil their rental obligations — another sign that consumers are struggling. PayProp, a residential letting transactions processor, measured an increase of five percentage points in tenants whose rent payments were in arrears over the past year. "Nationally, we measured an increase in the percentage of tenants in arrears from 18.5% in April 2017 to 23.2% in March 2018," said PayProp’s head of data, Johette Smuts. "This means that only 76.8% of tenants pay their rent in full every month and one in four doesn’t," she said. The bad news in PayProp’s rental index for the first quarter of 2018 follows news from Statistics SA on Tuesday that gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 2.2% in the first quarter of 2018. Smuts said on Wednesday that the average amount of tenants’ arrears, as a percentage of their monthly rent, had also been increasing.
"In April 2017, the average tenant in arrears was just over 80% in arrears. In March 2018, th...
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Subscribe now to unlock this article.
Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).
There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.
Cancel anytime.
Questions? Email helpdesk@businesslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00. Got a subscription voucher? Redeem it now.