Nearly half of Bay's homes fully paid for

The City of Cape Town has a relatively higher percentage of households which are still being paid off by its residents compared to other metros. The Deprivation/Comfort Index compiled by the South African Institute of Race Relations showed that 20.9% of the households in the City of Cape Town were owned but not paid off. This might seem like a low figure‚ but it indicates the economic activities of the metro’s workforce to afford a home loan‚ institute researcher Gabriela Mackay said. Tshwane follows closely with 18.3% of households that were owned but not fully paid up. Ekurhuleni and Johannesburg comprise 16.7% and 16.5% respectively of residents whose houses were still being paid. The metros also boast a high level of employed residents. Johannesburg leads with 72.7%‚ followed by Tshwane (72.1%) and Ekurhuleni (71.7%)‚ eThekwini (70%)‚ Cape Town (69.9%) and Nelson Mandela Bay (68.5%). Mangaung (67.8%) and Buffalo City (67.6%) have a lower employment figure than the other metros. Metros also registered higher levels of residents who rented property with Gauteng topping the list at 41.2%‚ followed by Ekurhuleni (37.3%) and Tshwane (32%). The survey also found that 23.8% of residents in Johannesburg owned their houses that they had fully paid off. In Ekurhuleni‚ the survey found that 27.3% of residents owned their homes which they had fully paid off. It found that 37.3% rented their homes and that 16.7% were renting their homes. In Tshwane‚ a slightly higher number of residents (33.7%) had their houses fully paid off‚ while 32% were renting and 18.3% of residents were still paying for their houses. The City of Cape Town’s 33.2% of residents had their houses fully paid off‚ 20.9% were still paying them off while 29.9% of them rented. The survey found that the two metropolitan areas in the Eastern Cape‚ Nelson Mandela Bay and Buffalo City registered a higher percentage of residents who had paid off their houses. Nelson Mandela Bay had 47.2% whose residents had fully paid off for their houses‚ and 36.6% of Buffalo City’s residents had fully paid off their houses. The level of people renting was lower with 19.3% in Nelson Mandela Bay and 23.3% in Buffalo Bay. eThekwini had 39% of households whose houses were fully paid off‚ 29.7% rented their homes‚ while 14.8% were still paying off their homes Just over half of Mangaung residents (51.3%) had paid off their houses‚ while 11% were still paying off their houses. In its newsletter last month‚ Pam Golding Properties said a recent study of housing markets in major cities across America concluded that the more a metro area is able to expand outwardly and create new housing supply‚ the less its housing prices tend to rise. It said another factor which appeared to be contributing to the Western Cape housing market’s relative outperformance was the net in-migration of homeowners from other provinces. – TMG Digital