Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth offer the best balance between salaries, affordable homes and the cost of living according to a salary survey compiled by JobCrystal and figures contained in the Absa Housing Review.
Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth property might be the most affordable but Durban residents have the highest happiness levels, according to the JobCrystal survey.
Salaries in Port Elizabeth for white-collar workers are 16% lower than the national average of R19 293 but house prices in the area were also 16% lower than the middle-segment of R1,02-million.
According to Hano Jacobs, chief executive of Reality 1 International, this means that repayments on a home loan are equivalent to 43% of the salary. In Johannesburg the bond-repayment-to-salary ratio is also 43%.
In Pretoria and Bloemfontein, the ratio climbs to 46% whereas in Cape Town the ratio is 52%. Durban, with its depressed house prices and low salaries, has a ratio of 48%.
According to the JobCrystal survey, people who live in smaller centres are generally happier than those people living in major metropolitan areas and Durban has the highest happiness rating of all South African cities at 61%.
The happiness levels are next highest in the Eastern Cape (60%) followed by Pretoria (57%), northern Johannesburg (56%) and Cape Town (55%).
Jacques du Toit, sectoral analyst at Absa expects that house price may show a slight improvement over the next 12 months but warned that the high ratio of household-debt-to-income, at almost 79%, coupled with the impact of the National Credit Act meant that banks were conservative in advancing new loans.
He has forecast nominal house price growth of about 3% for the year compared with 6,8% for 2010.
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I moved to East London in May 2010 and have been on the market for a 3 bed house. Lord, it’s been a struggle to find a reasonable one, East London is extremely overpriced, it’s actually absurd for a place that has only 2 malls & a couple of good schools!!! I have a 2bed flat that I bought in Cape Town for next to nothing in 2008. - K. Beja
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