Rent Vs. Buy: Century City

Here's a flat for sale in Villa Italia in Century City. Asking price is R799 000 and it's tenanted for the next six months. "Great!" you say "what's the rental income?". How about R3 000 a month. Less monthly levy R806.71 and monthly rates about R350. That comes to a whopping R1843 rental income. I actually don't want to calculate the yield here because I know it's going to be horrible but here goes...

Down Payment	Monthly Payment	Cash flow	Annual Income	ROI
R0	R9646.92	R-7803.92	R-93647.08
R79900	R8682.23	R-6839.23	R-82070.78	-102.72%
R159800	R7717.54	R-5874.54	R-70494.47	-44.11%
R239700	R6752.85	R-4909.85	R-58918.16	-24.58%
R319600	R5788.15	R-3945.15	R-47341.85	-14.81%
R399500	R4823.46	R-2980.46	R-35765.54	-8.95%
R479400	R3858.77	R-2015.77	R-24189.23	-5.05%
R559300	R2894.08	R-1051.08	R-12612.93	-2.26%
R639200	R1929.38	R-86.38	R-1036.62	-0.16%
R719100	R964.69	R878.31	R10539.69	1.47%
R799000	R0.00	R1843.00	R22116.00	2.77%

Egads! 2.77% ROI when you pay in cash and R700 000 needed just to break even. What an investment. I'll take two!