The cheapest and most provinces to rent in South Africa have been revealed in the PayProp Rental Index.
The index is a quarterly guide outlining trends in the South African rental market and is compiled from transactional data collected by PayProp.
The Western Cape has the highest rent while the North West has recorded the lowest rent and the average rent for the country was R9,051 making it the first time that the average rent crossed the R9,000 mark.
Here is a look at the rental prices for South Africa's nine provinces:
Eastern Cape
The average price of rent for the Eastern Cape was R7,297 for Q4 2024, the third highest rent in SA, according to PayProp. For Q4 2023, the average rent was R7,018.
The report said that this time last year, the province has the third highest rental growth of the country at 7.3%.
Free State
After recording the lowest rental growth for most of 2023, the province rallied to record the second highest percentage increases in Q4 2023 (8.8%) Q1 2024 (9.1%).
The average rent in the province increased by R247 from R6,969 in Q4 2023 to R7,216 in Q4 2024.
Gauteng
Year-on-year, rent in Gauteng increased by 3.4% in Q4 2024, finishing a year of below average growth, according to the report.
The rent grew from R8,864 in Q4 2024 to R9,169 in Q4 2024, a R305 hike. Gauteng still has the third highest rents in SA.
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KwaZulu-Natal
According to the report, landlords in this province had a rough start to 2024 with rent falling by 0.4% year-on-year, making it the only province to experience a quarter negative growth last year.
However, rental growth increased steadily in each quarter, reaching 4% in Q4.
For Q4 2024, average rent was R9,147 while for the previous year average rent was R8,755 in Q4 2023.
Limpopo
For Q4 2023, the average rent was R7,919 which was lower than the R8,797 recorded for Q4 2024.
According to the report, Limpopo has posted above average rental growth in almost every quarter for the past two years but took off in Q3 2024, coming in second place with 8.4% growth.
For Q4 2024, the market ran hotter was a staggering 11.1% year-on-year growth.
Mpumalanga
This province experienced year-on-year rental market growth in every quarter of 2024, however, the whole year was a difficult one for Mpumalanga' s rental professionals. Rental growth peaked at 2.4% in Q2.
The average rent for Q4 2024 was R8,439, a R186 year-on-year increase from R8,423 in Q4 2023.
North West
The North West has the lowest average rent sitting at R6,798 which is an increase of R454 from the R6,344 in Q4 2024. While the province has the lowest rent in the country, the gap between North West and Free State has shrunk.
Rental growth in the North West was into or near double digits at the end of 2023 and the start of 2024, before dropping in Q2.
Northern Cape
Rental growth in the Northern Cape performed poorly through 2024, falling to 0.3% year-on-year in Q1.
However, growth recovered to 2.6% by Q4 and while that is still significantly less than the 5.0% recorded in Q4 2023, landlords and agents have reason to hope that this is the start of a recovery.
The average rent was R9,657 for Q4 2024.
Western Cape
R11,141 was the average rent for the Western Cape for Q4 2024, the highest rent in the country which was predicted in Q3 PayProp Rental Index.
The average rent for the province for Q4 2023 was R10,118.
Rental growth ran consistently close to the national average before suddenly jumping to near double figures in Q2 2024.
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