Rent Vs Buy: Kenilworth

Here's a 2 bed apartment in Kenilworth selling for R695 000 with a 'potential' rental of R3 500 (so it could be less but we'll give them the benefit of the doubt. Levies are +- R753 and rates are +- R191 a month which means your 'potential' net income will be closer to R2 556 a month. Here's the payments and return on investment table:

Down Payment	Monthly Payment	Cash flow	Annual Income	ROI
R0	R8895.98	R-6339.98	R-76079.81
R69500	R8006.39	R-5450.39	R-65404.63	-94.11%
R139000	R7116.79	R-4560.79	R-54729.45	-39.37%
R208500	R6227.19	R-3671.19	R-44054.27	-21.13%
R278000	R5337.59	R-2781.59	R-33379.09	-12.01%
R347500	R4447.99	R-1891.99	R-22703.91	-6.53%
R417000	R3558.39	R-1002.39	R-12028.73	-2.88%
R486500	R2668.80	R-112.80	R-1353.54	-0.28%
R556000	R1779.20	R776.80	R9321.64	1.68%
R625500	R889.60	R1666.40	R19996.82	3.20%
R695000	R0.00	R2556.00	R30672.00	4.41%

80% downpayment required to break even on rentals and 4.41% return on income if you buy the whole thing in cash. That's only 5% or so below the returns you'd get if you just left your money in the bank.