By: Natasha Archary
Financial barriers are the primary reason more South Africans are opting to rent instead of buy their own homes.
Waldo Marcus, Industry Principal at TPN credit Bureau joins Gugulethu Mfuphi on Kaya Biz to unpack why a majority of South Africans who rent are reluctant to purchase their own property.
Sharing insight from the TPN Tenant Survey, Waldo says that affordability is the number one reason for people choosing to rent.
“Affordability is ranked as the number 1 reason people rent, with 48.1% of the respondents expressing they simply cannot afford to purchase a property.
Purchasing a property is linked to the interest rates and that’s the macro-economic impact, but there’s also other financial implications that are also holding back South Africans from buying property.
You’ve got transfer duties on top of the bond repayments which already have high interest rates, you’ve got rates and taxes which is one of the key factors for why people are not buying properties yet.
Poor credit records are another reason, with 9.9% of respondents saying they can’t buy a property because they have poor credit records.
There’s other credit repayments which is based on the cost of living, which outpaces salary growth and then another very important point for a household is the lack of employment, or finding the correct employment.
These are all financial factors which we need to understand why people cannot afford to buy houses.”
According to the survey more than half of female respondents said they couldn’t afford to buy.
Listen to the conversation on Kaya Biz:
Also read: Expressing dissatisfaction as citizens
