Rent Vs. Buy: City Bowl

Reader AL wrote to give us some anecdotal evidence abut the current whacky rent:price ratios. He rents a house in the city bowl for R7000 that was bought for R2 500 000, which admittedly is very good rental. Let's say the average interest rate has been 12% since the house was bought, then the ROI is:

Down Payment	Monthly Payment	Cash flow	Annual Income	ROI
R0	R27527.15	R-20527.15	R-246325.84
R250000	R24774.44	R-17774.44	R-213293.26	-85.32%
R500000	R22021.72	R-15021.72	R-180260.67	-36.05%
R750000	R19269.01	R-12269.01	R-147228.09	-19.63%
R1000000	R16516.29	R-9516.29	R-114195.50	-11.42%
R1250000	R13763.58	R-6763.58	R-81162.92	-6.49%
R1500000	R11010.86	R-4010.86	R-48130.34	-3.21%
R1750000	R8258.15	R-1258.15	R-15097.75	-0.86%
R2000000	R5505.43	R1494.57	R17934.83	0.90%
R2250000	R2752.72	R4247.28	R50967.42	2.27%
R2500000	R0.00	R7000.00	R84000.00	3.36%

Break even with R1 800 000 as a downpayment? 3.36% max ROI before maintenance and rates? That.... has got to be painful.