That’s the word from the RealNet property group, whose franchisees report strong demand for rental property in many smaller centres, especially where there is new mining activity or infrastructure development going on.
In Bronkhorstspruit, for example, rentals have risen on the back of strong demand from contract workers at Eskom’s new Kusile power station – and could go up even more if plans for another power station in the area are confirmed.
Casper Botha of RealNet Kungwini’s rental division says: “Landlords here are doing well, and there is no oversupply of stock even though rentals are quite high. There have been a few new developments recently but these have already been sold out and are now fully-occupied and tenanted.”
Buyers have been investors as well as owner-occupiers, he says, and have been a mixture of blacks, Indians and whites. Townhouse prices in Bronkhorstspruit are around R700k for a two-bedroom unit, and landlords can count on getting rent of around R4000pm.
Sandra van der Merwe of RealNet Polokwane says rental demand in Limpopo’s capital city is so high that there is precious little available to rent in the R4,500 to R7k pm bracket. “And what there is on offer is in very bad condition.
“Anything decent now costs between R8k and R20k pm, and that’s despite the fact that all the WBHO contractors who were working on our new soccer stadium have now left town. We thought we were going to have an oversupply, but this never materialised and in fact everything we are able to offer is getting snapped up in days, straight off the Internet. We don’t even have time to advertise in print.”
She says several new mines are scheduled to open near Polokwane in the next two years, and that most demand for rental accommodation is coming from people relocating to the city in connection with these projects, mostly on a short-term basis.
However, notes RealNet CEO Tjaart van der Walt, wherever there is new industrial or infrastructural development, there is also local economic growth and a permanent increase in rental demand. “This is currently also evident in Mokopane and Lephalale in Limpopo and in Lydenburg, Burgersfort and Nelspruit in Mpumalanga, for example, and one only has to look at Rustenburg and Richards Bay to see the long-term effects of such growth.”
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